The Emoji Linguistic Functions on Facebook Interactions among Undergraduate Students at Jadara University in Jordan

Abstract

This study has made use of a mixed mode design where two instruments are employed namely a corpus based tool and a questionnaire. For three months, the researchers have observed Raseef Jadara Facebook website in order to explore the use of emoji in posts and comments. The results showed that five functions were emerged from the data collected, emotive, conative, phatic, poetic, referential and metalingual. Descriptive statistics were used in conducting a questionnaire in order to show the differences between male and female students in using emoji. The results showed that females prefer using emoji in their chatting or messaging. The researchers suggest further studies to be carried out on the language functions of emoji in other social media platforms Furthermore. It is recommended for other studies to be directed into investigating all language functions.