Maja Katarina Tomić, Marijana Martinez, Tedo Vrbanec / Emoticons

Review

EMOTICONS
Maja Katarina Tomić
Marijana Martinez
Tedo Vrbanec

ABSTRACT “Emoticon (“icon mood“) is used in Instant Messaging. Nowadays it is

unthinkable to write messages without emoticons whose function is to display the mood
or facial expression of sender. Emotion is often used to alert recipients of the message to
the real meaning of the message and may improve interpretation of plain text. Emoticons
help compensate for the nonverbal aspect of communication in the virtual world of in-
stant messages. This paper reviews styles that are now in use in the world, the history of
origin of emoticons and their property rights.
KEYWORDS: emoticons, history of emoticons, emoticon styles, possibilities of emot-
icon use in Instant Messaging
JEL: L86, N70, D8

1. Introduction
The word “emoticon” is derived from the combination of two English words, “emo-
tion” - emotion and “Icon” - icon. Text emoticons are often automatically replaced with
small, corresponding pictures called emoticons. This practice is commonly employed to
express moods when communicating on web forums, in instant messaging and online
games. Emoticons are in use since 19th century when they were used in everyday, humor-
ous written expression. In digital form, as a message appeared on the Internet 19th of
1982, as proposed by Scott Fahlman.

2. First emoticons
The National Telegraphic Review and Operators Guide reported use of number 73
of the Morse alphabet in April of 1857 to express “love and kisses” (later transformed
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into the expression “with respect”). Manual Dodge noted down that expression in 1908
under the number 88.
Transcript taken from a speech by Abraham Lincoln, written in 1862, published by the
New York Times, was found by Bryan Benilous, features an emoticon that’s flashing, but
it is not known whether they are real or it is a printing error or construction that includes
punctuation characters.
Typographic emoticons were published in 1881 by the U.S. satirical magazine Puck.
In 1912. Ambrose Bierce proposed a new way to use punctuation in a sentence. He intro-
duces a “period that chuckles,” or a symbol that ‘laughs’ featuring the \ ___ / characters, a
symbol for a smile. This symbol was added to ironic sentences.
Emoticons have been used by subcultures in 1940, which was formed by individuals
whose common characteristic was expressing sympathy for each other. Year 1963. artist
Harvey Ball created the “Smiley” (smiley face), a yellow button with two black dots that
show the eyes and the curve of the mouth. The symbol was created at the request of a large
insurance company. The insurance company used a symbol for a campaign which aimed
to raise the morale and spirits of employees and soon became a huge hit. This “smiley face”
became the inspiration for the creation of various emoticons. The basic graphic emoticon
symbol basically shows small yellow smiley face (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Yellow smiley

In April of 1969 an interview was published in the New York

Times that mentions the “smiley face.” On that occasion, Alden
Whitman asked writer Vladimir Nabokov on which place he
would place himself with regard to the past and present writers.
Nabokov said there should be special printing labels to represent
a smile, curved brackets turned upwards, which he sketched out
in response to such questions.

3. Emoticons before 1980

Technicians who made the teletype machine in 1973. used the emoticons. These tele-
printers were limited since they contained keys like those found on standard typewriters
with added special characters. Technicians have developed a kind of shorthand for com-
munication with each other. This system became the basis for the character development
of the emoticon, which ran parallel with the introduction of computers that have replaced
the teletype in university campuses.
At the beginning of the 70s the employees of the PLATO system used emoticons.
These emoticons were more advanced than those that came later because they could be
used in any written form and included a character which resulted in a graphic image.

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Kevin Mackenzie proposed designation -) for transmitting and receiving messages on

the ARPANET msg group in April 1979. The dash represents the tongue, not the nose,
while the bracket representts a cheek. Some used the label: -) in which the colon represents
teeth. -:) has also been used, which shows a tongue that sticks out and expressed anger or
derision. Although these tags are similar to the “Smiley” their interpretation had not been
used in the later development of the “Smiley”.

4. Creating characters :-) and :-(

It is documented that the first person who used the emoticons :-) and :-( to convey
emotions was Scott Fahlman. His text, which suggests the use of emoticon and offer ex-
planations has been put on the notice board of Carnegie Mellon University for computing
science on the September 19th in 1982. It was believed the text is lost, but twenty years
later it had been found by Jeff Baird found browsing old backups. In just a few months
this record reached ARPANET (the forerunner of the Internet) and Usenet. Scott and his
colleagues suggested a number of variations of the same emoticons.

5. Graphic changes of the emoticon

On the web forums, while instant messaging and during online games text emoti-
cons have automatically been replaced with small corresponding images, which were later
named “Emoticons”. Similarly, some versions of Microsoft Word include the Auto Cor-
rect that basic “smilies” like :-) and :-( replaces with one character. Originally, these image
emoticons were very simple and were a substitute for the expression of simple and com-
mon changes in behavior, but they eventually became more complex. These specialized
emoticons placed in a menu or pop-up window which sometimes have hundreds of items.
Emoticons have surpassed their development from simple image expressions and have tak-
en on various forms of still pictures and moving images. Many of this graphic emoticons
do not actually show emotion or facial expression, such as an emoticon showing a guitar
can be used to express the music. Moreover, some of the software for instant messaging has
been designed to reproduce the sound of receipt of a particular emoticon.
Many applications contain text codes that replace graphic emoticons. For example:
dance: or (dance) could be replaced by a graphic emoticon dancing. The first web forum
software that performs such transformations is Proxicom Forum, created in 1996. In Au-
gust of 2004. one release of the Risks Digest highlights the problems with the content that
is not under the control of the sender: it is difficult to predict what will be the unintended
image convert some character traits sender.
Many Internet sites use GIF or PNG image files that are appropriate for their clarity
and the options they offer with their small formats. Images can be displayed using raster
graphics so many emoticon creators create emoticons dot by dot. Some emoticons are
created in a vector format such as SVG, which is then processed with the help of graphics
programs. Therefore SVG files will be automatically displayed in GIF or PNG format that
is compatible to most browsers since SVG is not.
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6. Western style
Traditionally, the emoticons in the Western style are written from left to
right, in the direction in which the culture of the West read and write. Howev-
er, it is quite common that emoticons have eyes on the left side, followed by the
nose and mouth. To make them easier to identify sufficient tilt your head to the
left or to the right shoulder if the “top” emoticon is leaning toward the right side.
Most of the basic emoticons have a solid form, but each can be changed and displayed
with or without a hyphen (nose). There are also variants that alter the meaning of the
emoticon, and with the changing of the character the underlying emotion changes, that
is, changes the emoticon’s mood. For instance:
: (- Sadness: ((- sadness and crying
“<- Flush in the face,” the - flush in the face for you
: D - grin or instead use: -> Variants
The sign of equality is often used to display the eyes, which has changed the meaning of
emoticons. In these examples, the dash is always either omitted or replaced with a circle. Thus
the emoticon = O was created. The circle did not contain a colon. Some favor larger, more
traditional emoticons such as :-). Generally, emoticons which are alike in appearance can
exert an influence on each other, e.g., o,O or 0 are used interchangeably in order to strenght-
en this impression. Which emoticon will be used also depends on the type of font used.
Some variants are specific to certain countries due to a keyboard layout. In Scandinavia,
the common use of “smiley” is =), because the keys are for characters = and> placed next
to each other. The user can also use a similar shaped bracket showing mouth :) or ].
Sometimes the diacritic characters O and U are used with an umlaut as emoticons. :Ȍ
- surprise.

7. Asian style
Users from East Asia use emoticon style which is recognizable even without tilting your
head to the left. The style emerged in the Japanese ASCII NET in 1986. Emoticons that
are similar to this style was used by the Byte Information Excange (BIX).
These emoticons are similar to the symbol (* __ *). Stars mark the eyes, the dash in
the middle represents the mouth and parentheses represent facial contours. Two separate
studies, one in 2007. at Hokkaido University and one in 2009 at Glasgow University have
found that Japanese and other East Asian nations figure out human emotions by looking
people in the eye and thus the emphasis on the eyes in the emoticon. In the Western cul-
ture the emphasis is placed on the mouth.
Individual emoticons like (“) (- _ -) (“) are expressed through a change of the sign
showing the eyes so that ‘T’ is used to express crying or sadness (T_T). Highlighting the
importance of the eyes is the result of character ^ ^. Stress respresents the symbol (x_x)
while (-_-;) shows agitation in which the character ; indicates a feeling of uneasiness.
Repeating the / / / (/ / /) can express discomfort that occurs due to shyness. Signs such as
hyphens, spaces can be replaced with underscores. In these cases, it is a sign for a small
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space, “carved” the mouth or nose (^. ^). It is possible to omit the mouth so the sign will
look like this: (^ ^). Parentheses can be replaced by tendril, {^ _ ^}. Brackets are often left
out, what is typical western style. Quotation mark “, apostrophe ‘, semicolon; emoticon
can be added in order to highlight shame or understanding.
Microsoft IME 2002 (Japan) introduced the use of both emoticon forms by using Mi-
crosoft IME dictionary for spoken language. In 2007 IME dictionary for emoticons had
been removed.

8. Korean style
In North Korea the emoticos are written using hangal letters and are increasingly popular.
Korean style is similar to the Japanese, it contains letters called jamo. There is a large number of
emoticons which allow changes. Most popular characters are ㅅ or ㅂ showing the mouth and
nose, and signs ㅇ, ㅎ, ㅍ showing eyes. For instance: ㅇ ㅅ ㅇ, ㅇ ㅂ ㅇ, - ㅅ -, ㅡ ㅡ, ㅡ ㅡ.
Faces like these ‘ㅅ’, “ㅅ” ‘ㅂ’, ‘ㅇ’, include quotation marks and apostrophes. Jamo vowels ㅜ,
ㅠ can replace characters, if we want to show the tearful face. For instance: / / ㅅ / /, _ ㅜ ㅜ, ㅠ
_ ㅠ. Underscores sometimes be omitted and letters can be mixed in symbols such as ㅜ ㅠ _, ^
ㅡ ㅜ, ㅜ ㅇ ㅡ. Semicolons is also often used: ㅡ ㅡ;;;;, ㅇ ㅅ ㅇ;;;, ㅂ ㅇ ㅂ;, ㅎ ㅇ ㅎ;;;;,-_.
Individually or in groups, semicolons are used to depict a confused face in order to strenghten
the impression. Symbols that represent hands, similar to the Japanese style, is also used, but they
are added from the right side: - ㅅ’s (scratching his head), ‘ㅅ’ b (thumbs up), ‘ㅅ’ ㅗ (finger).
Some symbols, like ㅎ _ ㅎ become emoticon-and although they are not symbols to express
emotions. Letters ㅎ and ㅋ are used as symbols for laughter which is similar to the symbol “w”
which has the same use in Japan. For instance: ㅋ ㅇ ㅋ, ㅎ ㅇ ㅎ, ㅋ ㅅ ㅋ, ㅋ - ㅋ, ㅎ _ ㅎ.

9. The use of Asian style in Western countries

Forums for anime that use the English language adopted the emoticons for which the
standard ASCII characters on western keyboards can be used. This is why they are often
called “anime style” emoticons. They are used in online games, instant messaging and on
various forums. Emoticon such as <(^. ^)>, <(^ _ ^ <) <(O_o <) <(- ‘.’ -)>, <(‘.’ - ^), (.
ㅅ.), involving the use of brackets, signs for the nose and mouth and hands (signs> and <)
show similarities with the Kirby sign (a Nintendo video game) and are thus often called
“Kirbies.” Parentheses are omitted if the emoticons are used in English, and the under-
score character showing the nose can be extended. Booster stations, eg ^ _______ ^ means
the person is very happy. Used and> <, or:) on the MSN and O.O or :(.

10. Combination of Western and Asian style

Exposure to both styles of emoticons or emos on blogs, in forums, instant messaging,
and which is accompanied by mixing of cultures has contributed to the rise of emoticons
which are shown in the vertical visual format. When emoticon is used in the English
language parentheses are not used and only alphanumeric characters and the most com-
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monly used punctuation are used. Emoticons -O-, -3 -,-​​W-, ‘_’,, _,, T_T:>, and. V best
show mixed emotions which is hard to achieve with the traditional emoticons. Characters
are often added to emoticons which express amine or manga emotions, eg ^ _ ^ ‘or!> _ <!
or ^ ^ 3 ‘or v3v, as well as: <@> _________ <@>;;, O. The same character is also used in
symbols to represent closed, anime eyes, eg = 0 =, = 3 =, = w =, = A =.
In Brazil, the emoticons contain added characters displaying eyebrows, eg ò_ó or ó_ò
or õ_o or ù_u or o_Ô. These signs can be replaced with the following characters “=” or “:”
by “>”, example:> D or> = D or> P or>: P or> 3 or>: 3

11. Ideographic style

囧 letter (U +56 E7), which means bright, is used in Japanese and Taiwanese society
to express frowning faces. Combines with the Orz emoticon showing the position of the
body such as 囧 rz. This letter can be found int the oldest Chinese Oracle bone script, and
the first use of this emoticon was recorded on the 20th January of 2005.
Other variants of ideographic characters include 囧 崮 (King 囧) 莔 (Queen 囧) 商
(囧 with hat), 囧 兴 (tortoise. letter 槑 (U +69 D1). If one connects the characters one
gets ‘呆’ (boring). in Chinese script full characters (as opposed to the stylistic use) can be
duplicated and further emphasize what they express.

12. Double channel style (double channelling)

Japanese language is usually decrypted using a double binary system. Therefore, there
are a number of variations which to which the emoticons are subject and many of them
can not be displayed in ASCII. Most kaomoji’s contain the Cyrillic alphabet and other
foreign letters and symbols so that the resulting symbols well surpass the ASCII code. For
such characters to be written the program which takes the Japanese characters as input
contains the emoticon dictionary. It is enough for the user types the Japanese word (or
something like that) and it will be converted into the appropriate emoticon. Such an ex-
pression is known as Shift JIS art.

13. Emoticons which represent body positions

Orz (known as OR2, on_, OTZ, STO, PTO, _no, _ 冂 ○, OTL, 囧 rz,
O7Z, _ | 7O, Sto, and the Jto) is a Japanese emoticon that shows a person who
kneels or bows. “O” is the head, “r” arms and body, and “z” is part of the body
and legs. The stick figure symbolizes failure and despair. It is often used to con-
vey a sense of admiration for someone, sometimes with a touch of sarcasm.
It was first used in 2002 on Techside, a private Japanese website. At this forum an ad ap-
peared in which the requested cable and its cover were indicated by the symbol “_ | ¯ | ○”.
Many have commented on this symbol, comparing it with the person which is kneeling,
and it soon became a popular symbol. By 2005 the ORZ becomes a subculture.
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14. Multimedia variants

Combination of the word “emotion” and “sound” yielded emotisound. Short sound is
played in the background while viewing a message, a characteristic of the instant messag-
ing and e-mail. These sound conveys an emotional subtext. Users of simultaneous mes-
saging automatically include sound effects in order to respond to a particular emotion.
Many services, such as MuziIcons, combine emotisounds and Adobe Flash music players.
In 2004 the Trillian chat application introduced a feature called “emotiblips” that allows
the users to use video other than audio which corresponds to a particular emoticon. In 2007
MTV and Paramount Home Entertainment promoted “emoticlip” which is one form of
viral marketing. They were used to advertise the second season of the series “The Hill.”
In 2008. FunIcons appeared, a tool for creating live pictures. Applications based on
Adobe Flash and Java allowed users to create their own small animations that can be sent
via email or saved and used later.

15. Emoticons and property rights

In 2000 despair corporation protected the use of the “brooding” emoticons on post-
ers, greeting cards and art reproductions. In 2001 the corporation published a warning
that it will take action against all those who use this emoticon on the internet. Nu-
merous protests followed and the corporation was forced to give it up after a month.
The innovations that allow the use of emoticons in communication have been
enriched with a large number of sign applications. The U.S. patent 6987991
shows a method developed in 2001 that makes it possible to send an emoti-
con via cell phone. These emoticons can be found in the dropdown menu.
In Finland emoticons :-), =), = (, :) and :(became trademarks for a number of products
and services in 2006.
In 2008 a Russian businessman Oleg Teterina acquired the right to use a emoticon ;-).
The company has received a license for ten thousand dollars. For individual users, this
emoticon was free to use”. [10]

16. Conclusion
Development of systems for instant messaging, email and the need to deliver messages
quickly and accurately and additionally to convey emotions and moods are all a part of
the ancient need for communication. The use of digital technology, apart from develop-
ing scripting, has also developed special icons and symbols used in text messages, which
are popularly called emoticons. Since emoticons are a valuable and indispensable part of
modern literacy imposed by digital technology in the field of interpersonal communica-
tion, it is well worth learning more about their interpretation and use.

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