The Pragmatic Functions of Emojis in University-Related Facebook Group-Posts: A Gender-Based Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1506.29Keywords:
emojis, Facebook, gender, Jordanian, pragmatic functionsAbstract
The present paper aims to study emojis used by male and female Jordanian university students in university-related Facebook group-posts. More specifically, it aims to reveal the pragmatic functions of emojis used by these students and to see whether they differ based on gender. The sample consists of 100 university-related Facebook group-posts collected from a Facebook group for Jordanian university students. The Facebook group is called Ask Petra University. The researcher collected 100 posts (50 posts by males and 50 posts by females). The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The framework that this paper refers to is Yus’s (2014) taxonomy of pragmatic functions of emoticons. The study revealed that the most frequently used emojis by both males and females are the face with tears of joy , the broken heart and the red heart . Some of them were used for the same pragmatic function by both genders. However, the broken heart had different pragmatic functions. The study concludes with some future recommendations and pedagogical implication.
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