The digital age has brought with it many technological innovations. The creation of emoji is one such innovation that has remained a staple of language use in the digital arena since its introduction in the 1990s (Alshenqeeti). In fact, one might even say that the use of emojis has become so widespread that in theory entire (digital) conversations could be carried out using just these digital pictograms. Interestingly, emojis carry with them many features of modern language and sometimes seem to have a universal meaning. If this were the case, perhaps emojis could be considered a complete and autonomous language. However, they are more likely to be an effective way to support the otherwise emotionless and toneless language used on social media and messaging platforms, but they lack some of the key features required to make them a real language. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay There are many ways in which emojis help improve or support language. Primarily, they add to the emotion conveyed by the writer in a situation where the reader would otherwise have no other cues (visual or auditory) to connect with the writer's meaning. For example, you might use the "tears of laughter" emoji after writing "that was so funny!" in reacting to a funny incident to communicate that he found it extremely funny. In this case, the reader will not confuse it with sarcasm or irony. However, if the writer was being sarcastic, he or she could perhaps add the “eye roll” emoji or the “smiley face” emoji to convey that he or she is being sarcastic. In some cases, the writer doesn't even need to use words to convey the meaning. Emojis such as the "Christmas tree" emoji and the "gift" emoji could be used together to convey the idea of ​​"Christmas present" or a combination of the "walking man" emoji and the "hospital" emoji could be used to mean “going to the hospital”. Therefore, it is clear that emojis could be used for the purpose of conveying short messages as well as to support language. An interesting emoji to analyze in this regard is the “eggplant” emoji which it is simply a purple vegetable. However, given its phallic shape and the widespread use of dating apps such as Tinder, Grindr or Bumble, it seems to have taken on a new meaning, indeed, the American Dialect Society has even named this emoji " Most Notable Emoji" of 2015 (Dictionary.com). The emoji is now used primarily for sexual innuendo (Dictionary.com) and a parallel could be drawn between its multiple meanings and polysemous words in linguistics. As it is used to convey sexual intent and imply sexual activity, it is possible to identify its relationship with speech acts and implicatures. In this regard, the "smiley face" emoji can also be used in many contexts: to convey the use of sarcasm, to indicate smugness, to indicate a shared inside joke, and sexual innuendo. This emoji then becomes an indicator of tone, mood and implicit meaning. However, emojis are not necessarily always effective when used alone. For example, by analyzing a corpus of over 30 million Tweets in British and American English, Italian and Spanish, it was discovered that not all emojis had a universal meaning and that the meaning of the same emojis differed depending on geographical location, habits and associated behaviors. with relevant cultures (Barbieri et al). Therefore, there is a possible margin of misunderstanding when it comes.