In Egyptology, these are called ‘determinatives’ - as they determine how written words should be understood. They’re signs which, without having a phonetic value of their own, can ‘color’ the meaning of the preceding word or phrase. The text of our Google Docs conversation was edited for length and clarity.ĭT: There is much to explore, but it began with emoji, so let’s start there: elevated art form or corruption of language?ĪL: For me, they’re essentially hieroglyphs and so a perfectly legitimate extension of language. We ventured into talking about emoji and social media during a hallway conversation and thought it would be fun to pursue this further via blog. I’ m here with Dame Wendy Hall, Kluge Chair in Technology and Society, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and early pioneer in web protocols with Alexandre Loktionov, AHRC Fellow at the Kluge Center and an expert on hieroglyphic and cuneiform legal texts and with Jessica Lingel, Kluge Fellow, assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on social media. Emoji, Texting and Social Media: How Do They Impact Language?

Texting signal