The Emoji Code

Since 2011, the use of emoji – deriving from the Japanese, meaning picture character – has become a global phenomenon.  We send over 6 billion emoji every day and regularly send emoji-only  messages, and, when Oxford Dictionaries named the ‘Face with Tears of  Joy’ emoji as their ‘Word of the Year 2015’, it received an enormous  amount of criticism.


Whenever emoji are covered in the popular  media the same burning questions come up: Can an emoji really be a word?  How language-like is it? Will emoji make us dumber? Or more lazy? Will  they make us less adept at communicating with our nearest and dearest?  And does this signal the death knell for language as we know it?  


Drawing  on findings from disciplines as diverse as linguistics, cognitive  science, psychology, neuroscience, archaeology and anthropology, this  groundbreaking book explores human capacity to communicate, and addresses these questions in the process. 


The Emoji Code  sheds light on emoji's vital role in the expression of emotion in  digital communication and more, pointing the way for the future of  international communication in a provocative and entertaining way.