Emoji in R/Hikikomori: A Corpus-Assisted Study of Digital Politeness, Humour, and Identity

Abstract

In English-mediated digital communication, emojis play a crucial role in shaping pragmatic strategies, influencing expressions of politeness, humour, or persuasion. This study examines their functions as meaning-making tools in a two-million-word corpus from posts on the r/hikikomori subreddit, an online community of users who withdraw from social life and remain confined to their homes for long periods. Within this context, where norms differ from mainstream platforms, emojis can act as affective amplifiers, softening harsh statements or signalling empathy in discussions about isolation and mental health. Their use in self-directed humour reflects awareness of one’s condition and reinforces in-group belonging. Drawing on multimodal discourse analysis and pragmatic frameworks, and combining corpus-assisted methods with qualitative examination, we investigate the interplay between the 10 most frequent emojis and text at both macro and micro levels. Our findings show that the emojis under investigation function primarily as expressions of emotions and attitudes as well as emotional and pragmatic intensity enhancers; they are also employed as politeness markers mitigating face-threatening acts or as cues for humour and irony clarifying or subverting textual meaning. Emoji interpretation is highly context dependent, shaped by linguistic and extralinguistic factors, and contributes to the realisation of speech acts by strengthening or softening communicative intentions. This study highlights the evolving pragmatic role of emojis as flexible, context-sensitive elements in digital discourse. It contributes to understanding multimodal communication in niche online communities and calls for further research into how emoji use varies across subcultures and platforms, shaping online identity and interaction.