Emoji Interpretation and Usage in Bilingual Communication

Emojis help people to express their emotions in place of textual language, but the emotions they convey are often not consistent. Prior research has shown that the usage and interpretation of emojis vary across different languages and cultures, but little is known about those immersed in multiple cultural and linguistic environments at the same time. To address this gap in research, we surveyed 31 US university students who are bilingual in English and Mandarin to understand how they perceive emojis in different linguistic contexts. Our findings revealed their different emoji preferences across languages, alongside varying sentiment and semantic connotations attributed to the same emoji when used in different languages. Overall, our study provides valuable perspectives on the nuanced ways bilingual individuals navigate and imbue meaning into their emoji usage, shedding light on the multifaceted nature of this form of expression within diverse linguistic environments.