Language is an ability that is in constant development. From its origins as a tool for communication and socialization, this skill has evolved over time until it became the complex interaction mechanism that it is today. Of course, this evolution never stops and little by little we see how new communication tools appear, like the ones we include in our daily discourse, as well as seeing how they mark our social interactions. Of course, in the last few decades, the most important change has been caused by the phenomenon of globalization and the technological revolution. With time, telephone calls have become less popular and we have given much more importance to written virtual communications, from text messages to emails and eventually reaching today’s instant messaging. A very interesting phenomenon that has appeared together with this type of writing is the use of characters that express emotions or represent ideas. Emojis? Emoticons? We will examine this later on. All of these came about due to a need, since it is impossible to hear the intonation of a message or see the facial expression of the other speaker, causing the messages to occasionally not be interpreted correctly. This is why it became common to add an icon instead of the written message in order to transmit an emotion or idea, as well as evoking a specific impression in the recipient of said message. Currently, this manner of expression is completely incorporated in all languages, in many registers and even being considered in rules governing spelling and writing. It has reached a point where agencies providing linguistic services are starting to take notice of their importance and are even offering services related to the use of these icons as a translatable part of a text. So, what do we call these cute icons?
For a time we have dealt with two terms that are used in very similar manners, emoji and emoticon. Even though they may be considered as synonyms by some, one is older than the other. In fact, the emoticon was the first concept to come onto the scene. The word itself was formed by a combination of “emotion” and “icon” and refers to symbols drawn with characters on a keyboard which represent facial expressions used to transmit an emotion. In western culture, the emotional impact of these symbols is fundamentally reflected in the mouth (for example, : -) for happiness, : -| for astonishment, : -( for sadness, :-/ for doubt or confusion and :’-( for crying). In a parallel manner, this same phenomenon occurred in eastern cultures, but it was more common for the emotional weight to be found in the eyes (for example, 0-0 for surprise, ^-^ for joy, ¬-¬ for displeasure, and even more complex forms, such as T_T for crying, u_u for disappointment or (~.^) for winking). Later on, and as a result of the sophistication of these icons, emoji were born, from the Japanese e (drawing) and moji (character, writing symbol). Apart from representing emotions, these symbols work as a sort of pictogram since they represent objects from real life and are identified with them. For example, the ice cream emoji refers to an ice cream cone. Likewise, a very characteristic phenomenon is that these emojis can gain new meanings by association, such as: ice cream > cold, balloon > birthday or fire > sexual desire. The success of emojis was so significant that social media and communications companies became interested in developing and including these and other symbols in their interfaces. This helped all users of electronic devices to become more or less familiar with them, using them in their daily conversations.
Curiously, it is worth noting that not all emojis are interpreted in the same manner in different cultures. The applause emoji has sexual connotations in China; in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, the thumbs-up emoji that we use to express approval alludes to an obscene gesture that could be compared to giving someone “the middle finger”; the emoji of a hand with the index and pinky fingers extended can be used in the context of metal music as recognition for a good performance, meanwhile in countries such as Italy it is used to ward off bad luck and in several Southern European and Latin American countries it is used to symbolize infidelity in romantic relationships.
As we can see, it is not possible to affirm that the use of emojis is fixed and international, since each culture uses its own interpretations, which are influenced by linguistic, social, historical and even geographical factors. In addition to this, each person or group of people has a particular use of a set of emojis because their reality invites an interpretation different from the most widespread one. Likewise, the use of emojis is so common nowadays that they are often used in marketing and sometimes entire conversations can even be held by using these symbols.
Thus, some translation companies are becoming interested in this subject and have started to offer translation services between a given language and emojis and vice versa. These services would include revising the use of emojis in a text and performing a study on how these can be interpreted in the target culture or even interpreting a text received with emojis or even making a text with emojis. The possibilities are endless. However, we still cannot know exactly what will be the scope of this trend and if it will have a larger impact on how we communicate. It is possible that these services, which at a glance seem outlandish, may become part of the portfolio of specialized linguistic services of the future.
Image reference: https://stock.adobe.com/si/search?k=emoji+wallpaper
