De la ponctuation aux émoticônes: entre constituance syntaxique et expressivité du cyberlangage

Abstract

This article presents a diachronic and comparative study of the relationship between traditional punctuation and emoticons.
It looks at the gradual cohabitation of punctuation marks in digital conversations and instant messages in favor of stickers, smileys
and other emoticons. What historical links does punctuation have with emoticons? How do Internet users use these two systems in
their written productions? These questions generate the following hypotheses: punctuation marks and emoticons are similar both
in their original presentation and their expressiveness in the text; nowadays, written productions gradually neglect the one and
prefer the other. Grammar of Fillmore and tensive semiotics are theoretical basis of our research. By collecting a corpus of instant
messages on the social networks Facebook and Whatsapp in the comments of users,we show that smileys works like a numerical
punctuation because theirs uses resembles an appropriation of this system. Essentially reserved for private digital communication, they have close historical, typographical and syntactic links with this system.