I've spent part of my summer tutoring, so I've got grammar on the mind. Before this teaching experience, many conventions of grammar had become pure habit to me. When it comes to re-learning the best ways to define and explain grammatical idiosyncrasies, it turns out that "define" overshadows "explain." That's because English grammar hardly operates on clean, methodical reasoning. There are rules and categories, but they exist to organize our language, not to give a comprehensive understanding of the ways it's actually used.
One of the languages we use to communicate today has developed without any rule-making. This language, while fundamentally unnatural, has achieved an organic state of being in use without being regulated. While most of this language happens on a bilingual level (used alongside English words), communicators can create entire meaningful phrases without English.
This language is the typed language of emojis.
Thanks to Mad Libs, most people know the system that we use for labeling word types. These "parts of speech" (noun, pronoun, adjective, determiner, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection) are important for an incoming seventh grader to master... but, as I recently noticed, they become hazier categories when we look at pictoral language, or, rather, emoji-speak.
We have learned that every sentence needs a subject and a predicate. The subject is composed of at least one noun/pronoun, while the predicate needs a verb that applies to the noun in the subject. However, if someone texted you the following emoji phrases that don't adhere to grammatical sentence structure, you would still know what they mean. You would know because of context clues, because of the conventions of emoji usage that have drawn upon meme creation, and because of the literal picture representations of activities that appear in emojis.
1. 👾
"Aaah. There is nothing better I can say."
This emoji confused people at first because the little dude's identity/purpose is unclear. His pixelated appearance denotes belonging to the world of video games, but some communicators have chosen to focus their usage on the way he looks shocked as he lifts up his appendages. There is an entire meaning in this one picture because of its confusing background and because of the context that would lead to its use.
2. 💁💅
"I don't give a hoot." // "Thank you; I know that I'm on point."
This doesn't literally translate. It's based on conventions. These conventions are not as refined as grammar, because they are not rules. They are recognized patterns, repeated across communication devices and published in memes.
3. 🐸☕️
"It's none of my business." // "Tell me what happened."
This one is a literal meme.
4. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
"I'm crying for an exaggerated amount of time!!! It's almost as if I have no control over my overwhelmingly sad emotions!"
This one serves an interesting cathartic purpose because repeatedly pressing one emoji on a phone screen can let out actual aggression and the length of the emoji string can reveal how much aggression needed to be set free.
5. 🍻💃🍷👯🍹
"Turn up." // "I want to go out tonight."
This one is an example of how the actual depictions in the emojis can create sentences of meaning. Nouns (objects and people) show verbs through implied motion between the mini pictures. The two beer steins appear to clink. That's a verb. The girl in the red dress placed next to the glass of red wine implies interaction between these two objects. That's another verb, on top of the fact that the girl is dancing. The combination of all these implied verbs and nouns creates a general meaning that relies upon context rather than a directly specific sentence that relies upon English grammar.
As you can see, in the emoji language, we don't simply replace English parts of speech with new emoji counterparts. The structure is totally revolutionized and let loose because grammar isn't paramount to people who communicate using emojis. Emoji-speak prioritizes a raw kind of expression that English grammar's strictness seems to reject. So it's important for communicators to have their phones' emojis as an outlet for friendly, casual conversation. 👋😁
