The Linguist

@Linguist_CIOL NEWS & EDITORIAL or instructions for a patient pre-procedure, for example. It follows that interpreters in these settings must be having to deal with these images as well. But how? What needs to be considered? Quite a bit, it turns out. Like all communication, digital communication is subject to the mood and biases of the sender and the recipient. Because tone and other elements of in-person communication are either hard to discern or lacking when we use only the written word, emoji are being used to insert emotion into digital communication as a way to mitigate this. However, like all images, they are subject to interpretation by the recipient, and this is further complicated by cross-cultural communication. Other factors at play are the fact that while emoji are standardised by Unicode, there are differences that can be attributed to culture. Some studies have shown differences in use of emoji that relate to gender as well. And emoji that are gestures are subject to the same issues that the physical gestures might cause – take, for example, the use of thumbs up or ok . But the complications don't stop there. The evolution of such gestures within and across cultures also affects the corresponding emoji. The 'ok' sign, including the emoji, is now associated with the white power movement in the USA, depending on the circumstances. And that's not even taking into account the purposeful use of emoji to represent something entirely different, as a way of keeping information from being understood by prying eyes. The example of the Canadian maple leaf being used by teens in the USA as a stand-in for marijuana comes to mind. Then we must think about how emoji may have changed over time. An interesting example is that of the Apple iPhone platform, which changed the original gun emoji from a realistic depiction to a more playful water pistol version – a change that most other platforms chose to follow. The two versions are guns, but one is viewed as more threatening and that has implications for both the message sender and the message receiver. These issues are only a few that can occur because of choice of emoji. What most people don't realise is that the platform of the sender or receiver can also play a role. Not all emoji appear the same on all platforms, and some do not appear as emoji at all when sent across platforms; they are simply rendered as text. So what is an interpreter to do? When faced with emoji in communication that must be interpreted via sight translation in either a medical or legal setting, the interpreter must make quick decisions regarding what an emoji means or conveys. This is an impossible task for all the reasons previously mentioned. There is no definitive dictionary where an emoji meaning can be discerned for all. A description of the emoji, or naming of the emoji by the interpreter, also risks misrepresenting the intent and the message itself. The only logical choice is to make none at all: the interpreter should render the emoji as 'emoji' and not even attempt to convey meaning. The text should be shown in its entirety to the receiver of the message, and they can be the final arbiter of meaning of those images. Example: The interpreter should render the source sentence 'Going to a party tonight! Come with me or else! ' in, say, Spanish as ¡Voy a una fiesta esta noche! Emoji [ ]. ¡Ven conmigo o te voy a… Emoji [ ]! Notes 1 Definitions from Merriam-Webster Dictionary except 'Stickers', defined by H Silvestri 2 Google search, 18/2/22, first page results: Thomson Reuters Practical Law cutt.ly/Thomson-Reuters; The Columbian cutt.ly/ColumbianEmoji APRIL/MAY The Linguist 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Across 1 Language used in yoga. (8) 6 Spanish is the dominant language here. (4) 8 See 16 across – Italy. (2,6) 9 A voiceless sound in speech. (4) 10 See 16 across – Germany. (3,7) 13 Lusophone country in Africa. (6) 15 A coin once worth 2 shillings, named after a city in Italy. (6) 16 The sort of language you might find in 8, 10 and 23 across. (10) 19 Francophone country in Africa. (4) 20 See 16 across – France. (2,6) 22 "Ceci n'est pas une ____" – Magritte. (4) 23 Send settlers to a place, and establish political control. (8) Down 2 Leaves, deserts. (8) 3 Settle down, and let it be in the Vatican. (3) 4 In computing, to assign a function to a different key. (5) 5 A cockney thief. (7) 6 A dish prepared in a French saucepan? (9) 7 How a German-speaking Swiss refers to their capital city. (4) 11 A red-pink mineral, taken from the Greek for 'rose'. (9) 12 English translation of 'beaux arts'. (4,4) 14 A painting medium, taken from Latin 'smelling sharp'. (7) 17 Contrary to its original meaning, this is now terrible. (5) 18 The form of Farsi spoken in Afghanistan. (4) 21 Information concerning the first book of the Bible. (3) Crossword no.31 Solution, page 25

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