FUNCTIONS OF EMOJIS ON FACEBOOK POSTS

Abstract

Communication in this information age has evolved with the assistance of computer-generated iconic features called emojis. Numerous researches corroborated that emojis serve as quasi-nonverbal cues in computer-mediated communication (CMC). People develop tactics to compensate for the shortcomings of CMC (Gulsen, 2016) using emoticons. The purpose of this study is to find out the functions of emojis in Facebook posts. Using content analysis to analyze 100 Facebook posts as its corpora, results revealed that emojis are used for various functions such as additional information, either emotional or situational, representation, tone modification, action, message support, emphasis, directing or addressing, and for decoration. In terms of linguistic functions, it is redundant for both meaning and lexical representation, it is a lexical replacement, it serves to provide nonverbal forms of communication such as complementary usage, entire turn, and antiphrasis.

Keywords: emojis, content analysis, computer-mediated communication