Dare. Dream. Done. [Sparkles emoji] : Pragmatic functions and sentiment of emojis in tweets by American, English, Australian, Indian, and Nigerian users

Abstract: Emojis can be ambiguous, even when used within one and the same language and geographic region, but they are also a globally accessible language in computer-mediated communication. This paper aims to examine if emoji usage across five different national varieties of English (American, English, Australian, Indian, and Nigerian), geographically located on five different continents, exhibits similar pragmatic functionality and sentiment. To achieve this aim, an analysis was made into the usage of three of the most frequently used emojis in tweets written by users from these five English-speaking countries. The number of tweets analyzed is 50 per selected emoji per selected variety of English, for a total of 750 tweets. The analytical process was to qualitatively determine the pragmatic function and sentiment the selected emoji exhibited in tweets. The results indicated that the pragmatic functionality and sentiment of the targeted emojis across the samples were generally similar, especially for Loudly Crying Face, but also for Face with Tears of Joy, whereas Sparkles showed more individual differences across the samples. A substantial finding was that it was possible to analyze facial and non-facial emojis in the same way.