This study examines the impact of graphicons (emoticons, emojis, and stickers) on the use of sentence-final particles (SFPs) in Chinese based on a 13-year longitudinal corpus of 941,020 comments posted on the popular Chinese social media platform Bilibili. Quantitative analysis shows that graphicon frequencies increase while SFP frequencies decrease over time, and that the correlation between these two trends is statistically significant. However, the more an SFP encodes a grammatical function or has a negative connotation, the less likely it is to be replaced by graphicons. Qualitative analysis suggests that the relationship between graphicons and SFPs is evolving from syntagmatic, where the two co-occur in the same sentence, to paradigmatic, where either can fulfill the function of expressing (positive) attitude or sentiment. This suggests that the functions of graphicons are shifting from compensation to competition with language, as an alternative to SFPs.
AndroutsopoulosJ (2011) Language change and digital media: A review of conceptions and evidence. In: ToreKCouplandN (eds) Standard Language and Language Standards in a Changing Europe. Oslo: Novus Press, pp.145–161.
2.
BarachEFeldmanLBSheridanH (2021) Are emojis processed like words?: Eye movements reveal the time course of semantic processing for emojified text. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review28(3): 978–991.
3.
CochettiRJ (2021) Is it time to consider emojis a language?The Hill, 8May.
4.
CohnNEngelenJSchilperoordJ (2019) The grammar of emoji? Constraints on communicative pictorial sequencing. Cognitive Research Principles and Implications4(1): 33.
5.
DainasAHerringSC (2021) Interpreting Emoji Pragmatics. In: XieCYusFHaberlandHA(eds) Approaches to Internet Pragmatics: Theory and Practice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp.108–144.
6.
DanesiM (2016) The Semiotics of Emoji: The Rise of Visual Language in the Age of the Internet. London & New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
7.
De SetaG (2018) Biaoqing: The circulation of emoticons, emoji, stickers, and custom images on Chinese digital media platforms. First Monday23(9).
8.
DjonovEvan LeeuwenT (2012) Normativity and software: A multimodal social semiotic approach. In: NorrisS (ed.) Multimodality and Practice: Investigating Theory-in-Practice-Through-Method. New York: Routledge, pp.119–137.
9.
DresnerEHerringSC (2010) Functions of the nonverbal in CMC: Emoticons and illocutionary force. Communication Theory20: 249–268.
10.
GawneLMcCullochG (2019) Emoji as digital gestures. Language@Internet17: article 2.
11.
GeJHerringSC (2018). Communicative functions of emoji sequences on Sina Weibo. First Monday, 23(11).
12.
HallidayM (1978) Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Arnold.
13.
HallidayMMatthiessenCMIM (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold.
14.
HanSY (1995) A pragmatic analysis of the BA particle in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics23(2): 99–128.
15.
HerringSCDainasA (2017) “Nice picture comment!” Graphicons in Facebook comment threads. In: Proceedings of the fiftieth Hawaii international conference on system sciences, pp. 2185–2194. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Press.
16.
HerringSCGeJ (2020) Do emoji sequences have a preferred word order? In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Emoji Understanding and Applications in Social Media (Emoji2020).
17.
HerringSCGe-StadnykJ (forthcoming) Emoji and illutionarity: Acting on, and acting as, language. In: GillMMalmivirtaAWårvikB (eds) Structures in Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
18.
HuangCShiD (2016) A Reference Grammar of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
19.
JuckerAH (2003) Mass media communication at the beginning of the twenty-first century: Dimensions of change. Journal of Historical Pragmatics4(1): 129–148.
20.
KaneyasuM (2022) Multimodal strategies for balancing formality and informality: The role of kaomoji in online comment-reply interactions. Internet Pragmatics5(1): 143–164.
21.
KonradAHerringSCChoiD (2020) Sticker and emoji use in Facebook messenger: Implications for graphicon change. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication25(3): 217–235.
22.
LiCNThompsonSA (1981) Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.
23.
LiWZhuH (2019) Tranßcripting: Playful subversion with Chinese characters. International Journal of Multilingualism16(2): 145–161.
24.
LogiLZappavignaM (2021) A social semiotic perspective on emoji: How emoji and language interact to make meaning in digital messages. New Media & Society. Epub ahead of print 6 September 2021.
25.
ManningCSchutzeH (1999) Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.
26.
MarkmanKMOshimaS (eds) (2007) Pragmatic play? Some possible functions of English emoticons and Japanese kaomoji in computer-mediated discourse. In: Paper presented at the Association of Internet Researchers Annual Conference 8.0, Vancouver, Canada.
27.
MaX (2016) From Internet memes to emoticon engineering: Insights from the Baozou comic phenomenon in China. In: International conference on human-computer interaction, pp.15–27. Springer.
28.
McCullochG (2019) Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. New York: Riverhead Books.
29.
MichelJ-BShenYKAidenAP, et al (2011) Quantitative analysis of culture using millions of digitized books. Science331(6014): 176–182.
30.
PanJ (2019) Architecture of the Periphery in Chinese: Cartography and Minimalism. London and New York: Routledge.
31.
ParkwellC (2019) Emoji as social semiotic resources for meaning-making in discourse: Mapping the functions of the toilet emoji in Cher’s tweets about Donald Trump. Discourse Context & Media30: 100307.
32.
PavalanathanUEisensteinJ (2016) More emojis, less :) the competition for paralinguistic function in microblog writing. First Monday22(11).
33.
RezabekLCochenourJ (1998) Visual cues in computer-mediated communication: Supplementing text with emoticons. Journal of Visual Literacy18(2): 201–215.
34.
SampietroA (2019) Emoji and rapport management in Spanish WhatsApp chats. Journal of Pragmatics143: 109–120.
35.
TangYHewKF (2019) Emoticon, emoji and sticker use in computer-mediated communication: A review of theories and research findings. Journal of International Communication13: 27.
36.
TangYHewKFHerringSC, et al (2021) (Mis)communication through stickers in online group discussions: A multiple-case study. Discourse & Communication15(5): 582–606.
37.
ThurlowCJaroskiV (2020) Emoji invasion: The semiotic ideologies of language endangerment in multilingual news discourse. In: ThurlowCDürscheidCDiémozF (eds) Visualizing Digital Discourse: Interactional, Institutional and Ideological Perspectives. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 45–64.
38.
van LeeuwenT (2005) Introducing Social Semiotics. London and New York: Routledge.
39.
WeissmanBTannerD (2018) A strong wink between verbal and emoji-based irony: How the brain processes ironic emojis during language comprehension. PLoS One13(8): e0201727.
40.
ZhangYWangMLiY (2021) More than playfulness: Emojis in the comments of a WeChat official account. Internet Pragmatics4(2): 247–271.
41.
ZhangYHerringSCGanS (2022). Graphicon evolution on the Chinese social media platform Bilibili. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Emoji Understanding and Applications in Social Media (Emoji2022) (pp. 75–85). Seattle: Association for Computational Linguistics.
42.
ZhaoC (2019) A Study on Sentence-Final Particles in Modern Chinese. Beijing: The Commerical Press.
43.
ZhaoC (2020) On the methodology of studying Chinese sentence-final particles. Chinese Linguistics 70(2): 44–55.
44.
ZhuD (1982) Lectures on Grammar. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
45.
ZipfGK (1949) Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort. Oxford: Addison-Wesley Press.
