Article: Analyzing Emojis Semiotically: Towards a Multi-Dimensional, Theoretical Model Inspired by Charles S. Peirce
Abstract
Emojis have become an essential part of the communicative sign repertoires of billions of people. Their use has increased rapidly in recent years. The variability of meanings, the context-sensitive, polyfunctional, and ambiguous character of the signs is fascinating. The inconsistency of their many meanings, however, is a recurring topic in academic discourse. Research on the functions of emojis has mainly come from the field of linguistics, trying to structure and classify these signs from the respected perspectives. But what do sign processes using emojis look like? What influences do the formal, especially pictorial aspects have on the effect and the meaning of these signs? What is the relation between form and content? And how are ›abstraction‹ and ›identification‹ connected to each other? In the present article, the sign process with emojis will be explained based on Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotics. Using messages from the ›Textmoji‹ case study and proposing a semiotic model, it will be shown what a sign process with emojis looks like. The focus will be on the intentions of users to employ these signs. Charles S. Peirce’s semiotics is applied to specific messages from the case study through a novel model based on his theory of signs. In a concluding step, the present article will demonstrate how recognition of a face takes place across different degrees of abstraction, drawing especially on comic book theory and cognitive semiotics.
Preferred Citation
BibTex
Enzmann, Deborah: Analyzing Emojis Semiotically: Towards a Multi-Dimensional, Theoretical Model Inspired by Charles S. Peirce. In: IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft, Jg. 19 (2023), Nr. 2, S. 178-195. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/22335.
@ARTICLE{Enzmann2023,
author = {Enzmann, Deborah},
title = {Analyzing Emojis Semiotically: Towards a Multi-Dimensional, Theoretical Model Inspired by Charles S. Peirce},
year = 2023,
doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/22335}",
volume = 19,
address = {Köln},
journal = {IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft},
number = 2,
pages = {178--195},
}
author = {Enzmann, Deborah},
title = {Analyzing Emojis Semiotically: Towards a Multi-Dimensional, Theoretical Model Inspired by Charles S. Peirce},
year = 2023,
doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/22335}",
volume = 19,
address = {Köln},
journal = {IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft},
number = 2,
pages = {178--195},
}
Keywords
The item has been published with the following license: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz