Graphic (im)politeness. A pragma-linguistic study of the graphic elements in CMC

Abstract

Starting from March 2020, pandemic-induced online communication necessitated new forms of expression. This paper analyses graphic elements – emoticons and emojis – accompanying verbal communication in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The absence of paraverbal/verbal or visual cues from face-to-face interaction prompted users to seek alternative expressive methods through nonverbal visual graphics. The corpus contains interactions in virtual communities (two Facebook groups and two forums) organized by gender according to platform themes (culinary/mountains). Pragmatically, the analysis reveals how users employ emojis to manage positive face and preserve negative face. Emojis can mitigate threatening speech acts but may also damage face when used inappropriately or offensively. Sociolinguistically, I examine emoji frequency and roles in gender-structured groups. In predominantly female groups, graphic elements appear more frequently with varied functions, while men prefer emotionally neutral messages, prioritizing sequence relevance.