Emojis have been indispensable and efficient tools in online interaction with the booming Internet and dramatically fast emergence of electronic communication channels. The present research is to study the pragmatic functions of emoji in internet-based communication within the revised framework of Linguagem em (Dis) curso (special issue on relevance theory) 14:511--529, 2014 8-function taxonomy. A total of 10 volunteers (20–40 years) were invited to collect a 3000-word latest corpus from their most active Wechat group respectively. Forty-six types of emoji in a corpus of 34,047 words were classified into 7 functions: attitude/emotion signal, attitude/emotion intensity enhancer, illocutionary force modifier, humor, irony, turn taking/giving, and backchannel device. We found emoji use was of high frequency, 1908 times in the corpus of 34,047 words, mainly as emotion signifier (attitude/emotion signal and attitude/emotion intensity enhancer, 50.8%) and interaction device (turn taking/giving, backchannel device and illocutionary force modifier, 47.8%). The top 3 most frequent emojis were (thump-up)(477 times) (rose) (222 times) and (traditional Chinese way of greeting and thanks) (108 times), which were used in an exaggerative and generalized way, slightly different from people’s preference of other countries. Additionally, positive emojis were used more often than negative ones. These findings suggested that emojis are of high frequency, functionality and efficiency in internet-based communication. Interestingly, online preference to emoji use does not perfectly mirror non-verbal signs in face-to-face communication; and in socio-emotional setting, people tend to frequently use positive emojis to create positive atmosphere to boost group rapport.

中文翻译：

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表情符号在基于互联网的交流中的语用功能-基于语料库的研究

表情符号已成为与蓬勃发展的互联网进行在线互动以及电子通讯渠道迅速快速出现的必不可少的高效工具。本研究的目的是在2014年的功能分类法14：511--529（Linguagem em（dis）curso）的修订框架内研究表情符号在基于Internet的通信中的实用功能。总共邀请了10名志愿者（20-40岁）从他们最活跃的微信群中收集了3000个单词的最新语料。一个34,047个单词的语料库中的46种表情符号被分为7种功能：姿势/情感信号，姿势/情感强度增强器，言外之力修改器，幽默，反讽，转弯/给予和反向通道设备。我们发现表情符号的使用频率很高，在34,047个单词的语料库中是1908次，主要用作情绪指征器（态度/情绪信号和态度/情绪强度增强剂，占50.8％）和交互装置（转弯/给予，后道装置和言外力调节器，占47.8％）。前3种最常见的表情符号是（重击）（477次）（上升）（222次）和（繁体中文的问候和感谢方式）（108次），它们以夸张和概括的方式使用，略有不同来自其他国家的人们的偏爱。此外，积极的表情符号比消极的表情符号更常用。这些发现表明，表情符号在基于Internet的通信中具有很高的频率，功能和效率。有趣的是，在线偏爱表情符号使用并不能完美地反映面对面交流中的非语言符号。在社会情感环境中