Here’s a survey about emoticons that you can take. I recognised some, but others I had to guess.
I like to see what other linguists are doing, and it’s fun to guess what the work is intended for. I’d say this work is part of sentiment analysis: working out automatically how a writer is feeling about what they’re writing. Or tweeting.
So help a fellow linguist out and take the test. It’s quick, and sort of fun.
14 October 2010 at 3:37 am
The happy-winky one didn't have an appropriate option. To me it quite explicitly denotes jocular sarcasm.
😛 implies, to me, "I'm really funny" rather than just happy. Though I've also seen it used in a way that implies "I love reading you're stuff because you're so far off this planet I can't help but laugh at you".
There are certainly a few in that list I've never seen before.
14 October 2010 at 12:02 pm
IT DIDN'T TELL ME THE ANSWERS!!!! How can I live in suspense about my emoticon deciphering skillz?
14 October 2010 at 3:59 pm
There's at least one for each of the other universal facial expressions, but no emoticon for contempt!
:-j