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Article published In: Beyond Words: Pragmatic approaches to visual discourses in digital interactions
Edited by Agnese Sampietro and Carmen Pérez-Sabater
[Internet Pragmatics 8:2] 2025
► pp. 186–213

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Face-work on Chinese social media

Functional interactions between the Doge emoji and verbal text

 | Guangzhou College of Applied Science and Technology
 | Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
Published online: 29 July 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00124.wu
Abstract
Emojis play a crucial role in facilitating face-work in online communication. While studies have examined the illocutionary effects of emojis on their co-text in online face management, it remains largely unexplored how face management is achieved through the combined use of politeness strategies realized by emojis and their co-text. Based on a corpus of comments from the Chinese social media platform Bilibili, this study explores how the Doge emoji and its co-text interact to perform face-work regarding illocutionary effects and politeness strategies. Findings reveal that this emoji frequently functions as an illocutionary force indicating device, adjusting verbal speech acts in a positive direction. Meanwhile, it serves as a politeness device, complementing verbal politeness strategies to flatter or maintain the interlocutors’ face. The interaction between the Doge emoji and its co-text is shaped by factors such as social distance, real-life politeness norms, and the speaker’s prioritization of face concerns.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Emojis in online communication
    • 2.1Online face-work facilitated by the use of emojis
    • 2.2Online face-work facilitated by the Doge
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Corpus
    • 3.2Theoretical framework and procedure
      • 3.2.1Analyses of illocutionary effects
      • 3.2.2Analyses of politeness strategies
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Illocutionary effects achieved by the Doge and its co-text
    • 4.2Co-occurrence of politeness strategies achieved by the Doge and its co-text
    • 4.3Correlation between politeness strategies achieved by the Doge and its co-text
  • 5.Factors accounting for the Doge-text interactions
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
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