網絡中的表情符號面面觀

Emoji， or emoticons， are the picture-like characters many people find indispensable in their social networking communications. Emoji， which originated in Japan， allow people to liven up their texts with hundreds of colorful images. But if you use emoji like a second language， do you often feel there are still not enough emoji to express yourself？

Laura Ustick， manager of a fast-food chain in Illinois， US， found there are emoji for ice-cream， pizza and sushi， but not for the all-American hot dog. Thats why Ustick and other emoji fans are taking action to get more emoji.

“When we want to write something cute， its just not there，” Ustick complained to a newspaper. Other fans are lobbying for symbols like cupcakes， bacon and unicorns， according to the newspaper.

Apple， Google， Microsoft and other tech firms design their own versions of how the more than 800 basic emoji characters appear， but they tend to present most human characters as being white. In the Apple keyboard， only two of the symbols seem to be Asian and none are black.

In response to the a website petition， an Apple spokesperson told MTV that “we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set.”

表情符號是一種圖形化文字，是很多社交網絡用戶不可或缺的交流方式。表情符號源于日本，有了這些成百上千的彩色圖像，人們可以增加文字信息的生動性。但如果你把表情符號當成第二種語言來使用，會不會發現這些符號由于數量有限，不足以表達你的情感？

美國伊利諾亞州一家快餐連鎖店的經理勞拉·尤斯蒂克發現，代表冰激凌、比薩和壽司表情符號很常見，但就是沒有最能代表美國的熱狗的符號。這也是尤斯蒂克和其他表情符號粉們采取行動，呼吁更多表情符號的原因。

“當我們想用文字賣萌時，卻沒有合適的表情符號?！庇人沟倏嗽诮邮苣硤笊绮稍L時抱怨道。據該報報道，其他表情粉們正在為諸如紙杯蛋糕、培根和獨角獸等表情符號進行游說。

盡管蘋果、谷歌、微軟以及其他科技公司各自設計出不同版本的800種基本表情符號，但他們設計的人物頭像大多數都是白人。在蘋果鍵盤輸入法中，只有兩個符號看似亞洲人，而黑人符號一個也沒有。

針對某網站上的請愿書，蘋果公司的一名發言人在接受MTV音樂電視網采訪時表示：“我們正在與統一碼聯盟進行緊密合作，努力更新已有標準。表情字符集確實需要多樣化。”

Not everyone can design an emoji symbol. In fact， emoji are largely controlled by a non-profit group called the Unicode Consortium， formed by computer programmers in the 1980s. The consortium designed the Unicode Standard， a coding system to fit worldwide platforms and various languages.

Unicode decided to take on emoji after problems emerged in understanding Japanese e-mails filled with the symbols， Mark Davis， co-founder of the consortium and a software architect for Google， told a newspaper.

Davis says the consortium generally encodes symbols already in existence. So most emoji available today are from the original ones created in Japan.

New symbols are added periodically. “Once Unicode greenlights an emoji， individual tech companies decide whether to include it in their operating systems，” Davis says.

Bernie Hogan， an Oxford University research fellow， studies the use of emoji as part of his research into how people represent themselves on the Internet.

Emoji may sound like a trivial matter， but “it is a way to augment texts with clear expressive power”， he told a newspaper.

“If they restrict the sort of people who are used in the images it restricts users expressive power—people wont feel that the emoji speak for them，” he says.

并非所有人都可以設計表情符號。事實上，表情符號主要由非營利性組織統一碼聯盟掌控。該組織由一批電腦程序員創立于20世紀80年代，曾設計出適用于世界各地的網絡平臺以及多種語言的編碼系統——統一碼標準。

該聯盟創始人之一、谷歌軟件構架師馬克·戴維斯在接受某報社采訪時表示，當看到一封充滿表情符號、難以理解的日文郵件時，統一碼聯盟決定解決這個難題，為表情符號編碼。

戴維斯說，聯盟一般會對現存表情符號進行編碼。因此當前可用的表情符號大部分來自日本最初的原型。

表情符號會定期更新。“一旦統一碼聯盟給某個表情符號開了綠燈，每個科技公司就要考慮是否在其操作系統中添加這一表情符?！贝骶S斯說道。

伯尼·霍根是牛津大學研究員，他的研究領域就包括人們在網絡上如何使用表情符號來表達自我。

表情符號聽起來可能微不足道，但“它是一個有效增強文本表達效果的方式”，霍根接受某報社采訪時表示。

“如果圖譜中的人種符號受到限制，那么用戶的表達能力也會受到約束——人們會覺得表情符號無法充分表達自己。”他說道。