William Gibson. 
What does heart ❤️ followed by ghost 👻, robot 🤖 and LOL mean? What about googly eyes 👀 followed by the peace sign ✌🏻? This is a trick question really because the answer is… it depends. It depends what was said (or typed) before, who said it, who is replying and what the context is that they are saying it in.
The incredibly rapid take up of emoji as a form of communication – symbolised by World Emoji Day – has led researchers to wonder what status to give emoji as a type of language. Is it a new language, or even a universal one?
Our paper, entitled ‘Emoji and Communicative Action’ – argues that the study of emoji (more…)