Aggressiveness of emojis before the court: a sociosemiotic interpretation

ABSTRACT Emojis, used evidentially as any language is used in communication, have posed new challenges for courts to adopt emojis as evidence beyond the traditional mode of speech and communication and to interpret them appropriately, especially their aggressive side of meaning. To meet these challenges, the present study, based on a comprehensive literature review, starts with case studies with aims to unravel the nature of emojis and develop a sociosemiotic approach to interpret emojis in the context of social media with a focus on the aggressiveness of emojis in social platforms and their consequences (social and legal ones). It is argued that the meaning of emojis could not simply depend on their grammar or general rules but lies in communication within discourse communities.

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