LANGUAGE ECONOMY: ABBREVIATIONS AND EMOJI IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Journal
Facta Universitatis, Series: Linguistics and Literature - FULL
Date Issued
2024
Author(s)
Andrijana Kjose and Mira Bekar
Abstract
The pervasive influence of abbreviations and emoji in social media communication
is a subject of contemporary analysis, revealing insights into their multifaceted roles and
implications. Abbreviations not only foster brevity and readability but also serve as linguistic
markers, signaling group membership and reinforcing social identities (Thurlow and Brown
2003). Emoji enrich textual content by imbuing it with affective nuances and contextual cues,
facilitating cross-cultural communication and engendering empathy in online interactions
(Derks et al. 2008). Individuals navigate an interplay between linguistic and visual cues,
utilizing contextual clues to infer meanings. For this qualitative study, a cohort of 15
participants, both English and Macedonian speakers, engaging in a total of 150
conversations across prominent social media platforms and 10 posts with comments on
Reddit, formed a corpus for analysis. . Textual data, were collected from diverse platforms
including Viber, Reddit, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. The
findings show that 1) participants use abbreviations and emoji for the purpose of language
economy and the aforementioned enrich language; 2) expressing emotional states on social
media is made easier with abbreviations and emoji. We hope this research will encourage
other scholars from various discipline to address this topic from different angles.
is a subject of contemporary analysis, revealing insights into their multifaceted roles and
implications. Abbreviations not only foster brevity and readability but also serve as linguistic
markers, signaling group membership and reinforcing social identities (Thurlow and Brown
2003). Emoji enrich textual content by imbuing it with affective nuances and contextual cues,
facilitating cross-cultural communication and engendering empathy in online interactions
(Derks et al. 2008). Individuals navigate an interplay between linguistic and visual cues,
utilizing contextual clues to infer meanings. For this qualitative study, a cohort of 15
participants, both English and Macedonian speakers, engaging in a total of 150
conversations across prominent social media platforms and 10 posts with comments on
Reddit, formed a corpus for analysis. . Textual data, were collected from diverse platforms
including Viber, Reddit, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. The
findings show that 1) participants use abbreviations and emoji for the purpose of language
economy and the aforementioned enrich language; 2) expressing emotional states on social
media is made easier with abbreviations and emoji. We hope this research will encourage
other scholars from various discipline to address this topic from different angles.
Subjects
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