A Study of Semiotic and Linguistic Gap Between the Meaning and the Usage of Emoticons in Pakistani Society

Abstract

Current research deals with the semiotic and linguistics gap between the actual meaning and the usage of Emoticons in Pakistani society. This study aimed to find out the gap between the meaning and the use of Emoticon and to examine the use and place of Emoticons as a form of language. This research also aimed to identify whether men or women tend to use Emoticons more frequently. To analyze the gap, a survey questionnaire was used having 45 questions as tool for collecting data from mobile phone users and 05 conversations have been analyzed using content analysis technique. According to the results, mobile phone users use Emoticons in their conversations without knowing what they mean, whether they have any referential or literal meaning or which conceptual categories they denote, they do not know the answers to all these questions. This research tried to give valuable suggestions in order to solve the problems of using Emoticons without proper understandings. On the basis of findings, it is suggested that Emoticons must not give false and fake expressions rather these Emoticons should prevent misapprehension and confusion and should be aligned with the receiver.