How to Do Things with Emojis: The Pragmatic Functions of Emojis in Teacher-Student Interaction through Wechat

Yang, Kun; Yansheng, Mao

doi:10.18002/sin.v10i1.6315

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 24 publications

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“…Similarly, Kavanagh (2016) suggests that a friendly smiling face emoji helps soften the illocutionary force of an assertion. In a parallel vein, Yang and Mao (2020) found that emojis (including smiling face emoji) perform an interpersonal function by mitigating the illocutionary force of the addresser. We can see from the prior studies that in most situations, smiling face emojis are used to soften threatening formulations and work as markers of positive politeness and rapport-building (Skovholt et al, 2014;Vandergriff, 2013).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Your Smiling Face is Impolite to Me: A Study of the Smiling Face Emoji in Chinese Computer-Mediated Communication

Yang,

Qian

2023

Social Science Computer Review

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This paper explores whether and in what situation the smiling face emoji will influence the interpretation of an utterance in a virtual context. The researchers drew examples from daily WeChat communication and posted them to participants in the experiment. Experimental studies found that the smiling face emoji decreases the politeness of an utterance but does not mitigate the illocutionary force of an impolite utterance. Further studies demonstrate that the interpretation is related to two features of WeChat: the interactant’s identity (age) and the situation of communication. For one thing, utterances with smiling face emoji may be interpreted as disrespectful by younger Chinese rather than the older. For another, the smiling face emoji is always interpreted as impolite when the utterances are related to the interactants’ feelings. We also infer from the findings that older people might respect the feelings of the addresser more than younger people in WeChat communication. This paper will help avoid miscommunication and contribute to understanding the socio-cultural features of interpersonal interaction in a virtual context.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Your Smiling Face is Impolite to Me: A Study of the Smiling Face Emoji in Chinese Computer-Mediated Communication

Yang,

Qian

2023

Social Science Computer Review

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A longitudinal examination of language learners’ group-level enjoyment and emotion regulation in online collaborative learning

Zhang,

Liu,

Gao

et al. 2024

Language Teaching Research

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This study examines the evolution and regulation of group-level enjoyment of online collaborative language learning. Three Chinese undergraduate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) collaborated to finish a series of English writing tasks via an online group enabled by WeChat, a popular social instant messaging app in Chinese-speaking communities. The data were collected in three sessions over a single semester using an idiodynamic approach for participants’ ratings of enjoyment intensity and stimulated recall interviews for participants’ descriptions of emotion regulation types. The data were analysed using deductive qualitative thematic analysis and quantitative descriptive analysis. The findings indicate that group-level enjoyment fluctuated within each session of online collaborative learning and tended to last longer in later sessions. Furthermore, the participants reported enacting three different types of regulation – namely self-regulation, co-regulation, and socially shared regulation – to achieve and sustain the dynamic evolution of group-level enjoyment in online collaborative learning. Of these, socially shared regulation was the most prevalent overall, and this increased in prevalence with time. The findings also reveal specific emotion regulation processes within these three types, including planning, evaluating, and the use of emojis. The implications of the findings are discussed, and future research directions are provided.

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How sajiao (playing cute) wins forgiveness: The effectiveness of emojis in rebuilding trust through apology

Yang

2022

Discourse & Communication

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Prior studies have found that emojis can contribute to rebuilding customers’ trust when after-sale staff apologize to them, but studies on the different types of emojis and their different levels of effectiveness in rebuilding trust are still needed. In this paper, we explore the different types and frequencies of emojis and their effectiveness in rebuilding trust based on commercial discourses. Our data are collected from conversations between after-sale staff and customers during Ali Trademanager after-sale service. We find three types of emojis frequently used when after-sale staff apologizing to customers: face-related emojis, gesture-related emojis, and object-related emojis. Moreover, face-related emojis are the most frequently used, as their nature is to express emotion and attitude. The most effective emojis are the whimper emoji and kiss emoji, which are used by after-sale staff for sajiao (literally, ‘playing cute’). On the other hand, we show that the least effective emojis are the sorry emoji and happy emoji, which are deemed insincere because they violate the quality maxim and quantity maxim in the Cooperative Principle. This paper thus contributes to understanding the nature and function of emojis in commercial communication.

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How to Do Things with Emojis: The Pragmatic Functions of Emojis in Teacher-Student Interaction through Wechat

Cited by 3 publications

References 24 publications

Your Smiling Face is Impolite to Me: A Study of the Smiling Face Emoji in Chinese Computer-Mediated Communication

Your Smiling Face is Impolite to Me: A Study of the Smiling Face Emoji in Chinese Computer-Mediated Communication

A longitudinal examination of language learners’ group-level enjoyment and emotion regulation in online collaborative learning

How sajiao (playing cute) wins forgiveness: The effectiveness of emojis in rebuilding trust through apology

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