emoticons

[Sonja L. Lanehart]

I don't know if this issue has been raised on the ADS list before,
but I had a question from one of my graduate students in the History
of the English language class. He wanted to know if emoticons (e.g.,
:) or ;) or :( etc.) could be viewed as a change to the graphic
system of English. I wasn't so sure about that since they seem to
function on a couple of different levels when assessing meaning and
their physical existence. Any thoughts or ideas about where these fit
in the history of the English language?     --Sonja

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Sonja L. Lanehart
Department of English      706-542-2260 (office)
University of Georgia      706-542-1261 (messages)
300 Park Hall              706-542-2181 (fax)
Athens, GA 30605-6205      lanehart at arches.uga.edu
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