Perceptual resemblance and the communication of emotion in digital contexts: A case of emoji and reaction GIFs
Abstract
Online communication has created new ways to express emotions, including emoji and reaction GIFs. Emoji are often discussed as signs for meaning-making, adding emotional tone to communication. Reaction GIFs express emotions and attitudes in a playful manner. This study shows that through the lens of cognitive pragmatics, these phenomena are not distinct. Both are cases of non-verbal communication pointing to the communicator’s emotional state. Drawing on relevance-theoretic notions of the showing-meaning continuum and perceptual resemblance, along with relevance-theoretic analyses of metaphor and irony, I argue that emoji and reaction GIFs provide clues to ostension and communicate emotions by virtue of perceptual resemblance between what they represent and the communicator’s emotional state. I will also argue that both emoji and GIFs can involve echoic use of language, enabling the communicator to convey their attitude.
Keywords:
Publication history
Table of contents
The emergence and rapid spread of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the last few decades has enabled new ways of expressing emotions, including the use of traditional keyboard-based symbols such as emoticons (e.g. :D for a smile), the use of asterisks (e.g. *joy*), acronyms (e.g. LOL), and typographical emphasis, such as the use of uppercase and bold. Others ways of expressing emotions include a visual presentation through digital pictograms or graphic images, such as emoji, stickers or GIFs. In this study, I will focus on emoji and reaction GIFs.
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