Popular science: The march of emoji as devices of punctuation

What if someone told you that in everyday written language, you are utilizing dots, commas, question marks and exclamation marks, but you just don't realize it?

The answer lies in emoticons. Considered to be the brainchild of Japanese graphic designer Shigetaka Kurita, emoticons are compact graphic images designed for mobile communications. As their namesake suggests, emoticons - combined from "emotion" and "icon" - often display facial expressions and emotions.

Generally circular, simple and bright yellow in colour, emojis can be found everywhere in modern digital communication.

So, what do these adorable, round faces have to do with punctuation?

Their linguistic function has become that of traditional punctuation marks, suggests a Finnish study from 2022. Compiling recent observations of a rather young discipline of language research, thesis worker Lassi Perämäki believes to be on the trail of a breakthrough change in modern language.

Following the remarks of select trailblazer researchers from around the globe - namely Agnese Sampietro, an assistant professor researching Internet language at University Jaume I - Perämäki conducted an open study on the topic. Finns from different walks of life were asked to express their opinion on dividing written text using emojis.

The initial setting of the research took into account the assumption that people do indeed use emojis as punctuational marks. Knowing this, a fair number of informants still provided insight to the research.

Indeed, a staggering percentage of 98,9 % of the informants said they used emojis in a punctuating manner in instant messaging, which was perceived as the least formal setting. Moving into further formality – into social media publications, work-related messaging with peers and ultimately work-related messaging to superiors – the usage of emoji in punctuation gradually dropped.

Generally, the younger generations that have grown up hand in hand with emojis are more tolerant towards them. The study suggests that emojis are nearly equivalent to traditional punctual marks, if you ask the younger informants. Curiously, when moving towards the older groups, their tolerance of using different kinds of emoji as punctuational marks increases, while simultaneously, the tolerance of using facial emoji as punctuational marks decreases.

If one was to speculate wildly enough, one could think the roundness and tone of these perfectly round faces indeed is the modern-day dot. Such a claim would even be supported by a certain 17-year-old informant, who claims that they do not even use any of the traditional punctuation marks in these given contexts. The study rounds out actual formal texts – such as essays in the case of the youngest age group – but answers such as the aforementioned gives curious insight into their thoughts on the topic.

However, not all results were completely black-and-white. Towards the two more elder groups of informants, positivity increased concerning the replacement of exclamation and question marks with emoji. The younger two groups of informants were more adamant in replacing dots with emoji, and the habit of replacing commas with emoji increased in a very linear manner towards the elder groups.

Ultimately, only future itself can tell what it has in hold for us and how language keeps on developing. After all, one of the core principles of linguistics is that only dead languages do not change. All rules of day-to-day language use, spoken and written, are ultimately cemented habits that have been declared rules by whatever governing language official has seen fit.

No need to stick to the past, correct 🤷‍♂️This could be the future that you 🫵 remember not being there back in the day ⌛ right?

(One question mark has to be in its rightful place, indicating that this indeed is a question since emoji aren’t the norm… yet.)

Read the study in question here. (in Finnish)