5 ms·

Are you under the impression that emojis "mean" the same for everyone? We kinda invented words to specify the meaning; emojis are a horrible step back. If you

by pmlnr 5y ago

Are you under the impression that emojis "mean" the same for everyone? We kinda invented words to specify the meaning; emojis are a horrible step back. If you need a better word, use a thesaurus.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
Emoji: like Kanji, but without agreed upon semantic meaning or pronunciation!
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  Or, you could say, "agreed upon semantic meaning" is a work in progress. Except Kanji and other logographic systems since the hieroglyphs don't actually picture a thing directly, so there's no confusion between what's the "agreed upon" meaning and what the image represents at face value.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    That's a fair point I suppose. Kanji started as pictographic too. It's just really strange to me that anyone would choose to add such a complicated feature to language use that they didn't inherit from a time before syllabaries and alphabets.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > since the hieroglyphs don't actually picture a thing directly Sometimes they do. 龍 is one of my favorites, and it originates as a picture of a dragon - body and legs on the right, head (立) and whiskers (月) on the left. It's a shame that one got simplified.
oblio 5y ago
> If you need a better word, use a thesaurus. Again, with the arrogance and the implication that persons using emojis are dumb and/or uneducated. Yes, images are ambiguous. Just as text is limited and constraining. There's a reason we say "a picture is worth one thousand words", and it's not because the creators of said quote didn't have a thesaurus at hand.
- pmlnr 5y ago
  > "a picture is worth one thousand words" That is such a terrible sentence, because it's barely ever true. Most pictures, without a context, are utterly meaningless; go check a Facebook stream where people just barf images without any context. None of them mean anything, let alone a thousand words.
  - muffinman26 5y ago
    Fun fact, one publisher AMA I read reported that a picture is literally worth one thousand words, ie. (per word rate) * 1000 = estimated price of an illustration. Of course pictures don't mean anything without context, but then, neither do words. It's much easier to understand a complicated layout with a map than with a description of all the possible exits, for example, and neither provides much information if you don't know what room/building is being described.
ducharmdev 5y ago
If you think words don't have this problem, you should read into Jacques Derrida's concept of différance. This may be more apparent in emojis since they're relatively newer.

by pmlnr 5y ago

Are you under the impression that emojis "mean" the same for everyone? We kinda invented words to specify the meaning; emojis are a horrible step back. If you need a better word, use a thesaurus.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

Emoji: like Kanji, but without agreed upon semantic meaning or pronunciation!

TeMPOraL 5y ago
Or, you could say, "agreed upon semantic meaning" is a work in progress. Except Kanji and other logographic systems since the hieroglyphs don't actually picture a thing directly, so there's no confusion between what's the "agreed upon" meaning and what the image represents at face value.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  That's a fair point I suppose. Kanji started as pictographic too. It's just really strange to me that anyone would choose to add such a complicated feature to language use that they didn't inherit from a time before syllabaries and alphabets.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > since the hieroglyphs don't actually picture a thing directly Sometimes they do. 龍 is one of my favorites, and it originates as a picture of a dragon - body and legs on the right, head (立) and whiskers (月) on the left. It's a shame that one got simplified.

oblio 5y ago

> If you need a better word, use a thesaurus. Again, with the arrogance and the implication that persons using emojis are dumb and/or uneducated. Yes, images are ambiguous. Just as text is limited and constraining. There's a reason we say "a picture is worth one thousand words", and it's not because the creators of said quote didn't have a thesaurus at hand.

pmlnr 5y ago
> "a picture is worth one thousand words" That is such a terrible sentence, because it's barely ever true. Most pictures, without a context, are utterly meaningless; go check a Facebook stream where people just barf images without any context. None of them mean anything, let alone a thousand words.
- muffinman26 5y ago
  Fun fact, one publisher AMA I read reported that a picture is literally worth one thousand words, ie. (per word rate) * 1000 = estimated price of an illustration. Of course pictures don't mean anything without context, but then, neither do words. It's much easier to understand a complicated layout with a map than with a description of all the possible exits, for example, and neither provides much information if you don't know what room/building is being described.

ducharmdev 5y ago

If you think words don't have this problem, you should read into Jacques Derrida's concept of différance. This may be more apparent in emojis since they're relatively newer.