AbstractWe investigate emoji as graphic discourse
markers in German WhatsApp® messages. As comparably novel devices in
the rapidly evolving domain of digital messenging, emoji provide an
interesting example to observe change in progress. We present a
corpus study and an experimental study. Main results are (i) an
overall salience of subjective and intersubjective discourse
meanings for emoji, with (ii) a general advantage for the former,
especially for emoji that iconically include more active elements,
while (iii) dominance relations can be modulated by left- vs.
right-peripheral positions in favor of subjective vs.
intersubjective meanings, respectively. By approaching emoji as
discourse markers, the studies contribute to our understanding of
their pragmatic contribution and provide novel evidence on
positional-functional associations for pragmatic markers.
