Use of Emojis as Discourse Markers in WhatsApp Conversations: A Multimodal Perspective

The research examines the modality role of emojis through communication between Saudi mothers between 35 and 55 years old and their daughters between 18 and 25 years old, through their WhatsApp interactions, using urban/suburban bilingual speech patterns. NVivo analysis together with the snowball sampling method help investigate the connection between emojis, text, images and cultural patterns in multicultural communications. Emojis stand essential for communication, because they serve crucially as discourse markers that help people communicate emotions and build relationships while transmitting cultural messages. Text messages with emojis become easier to understand, as they simplify meaning ambiguities and demonstrate the users’ abilities to respond flexibly to both age-related and regional differences. The research demonstrates how linguistic elements, digital platforms and cultural identity features combine to form emoji patterns which generate vital information for digital interaction theory and platform development research. Future investigations must analyse the use of emojis across different digital platforms, in a wide range of cultural environments, to understand their function in smoothing emotional and cultural differences within digital communications.