Kam-Fong Lee - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Kam-Fong Lee
Online chatting lacks live physical non-verbal interaction, causing communication difficulties an... more Online chatting lacks live physical non-verbal interaction, causing communication difficulties and conflicts. Emojis (emoticons), a visual language that simulates non-verbal cues, are gaining popularity among young people, particularly Chinese students. However, few studies have used WeChat data to study their pragmatic functions. This study employs a qualitative research design, by drawing on chat-logs from 20 Chinese undergraduate students aged between 20-25 years old. Six pragmatic functions of emojis are found to be principally operative, namely attitude/ emotion signalling, speech act emotion signalling, attitude/emotion intensity enhancement, illocutionary force modification, joking, irony. This study sheds light on the profile of the users of emojis, while aiding the identification of the intended meaning of the sender.
Online chatting lacks live physical non-verbal interaction, causing communication difficulties an... more Online chatting lacks live physical non-verbal interaction, causing communication difficulties and conflicts. Emojis (emoticons), a visual language that simulates non-verbal cues, are gaining popularity among young people, particularly Chinese students. However, few studies have used WeChat data to study their pragmatic functions. This study employs a qualitative research design, by drawing on chat-logs from 20 Chinese undergraduate students aged between 20-25 years old. Six pragmatic functions of emojis are found to be principally operative, namely attitude/ emotion signalling, speech act emotion signalling, attitude/emotion intensity enhancement, illocutionary force modification, joking, irony. This study sheds light on the profile of the users of emojis, while aiding the identification of the intended meaning of the sender.