Getting Psyched

Anything presented in text, whatever the type—characters, pictograms, onomatopoetic expressions—can be interpreted in some way. And court cases involving unconventional, unpronounceable type aren't rare

But the definitions of emojis will raise questions soon, because emojis are essentially fuzzy in definition. They're embedded in complicated social context, making them open to interpretation

The expressions on a person's face can't be translated perfectly in text, even if emojis include a set of varied faces. "Face-to-face, you get intonation, speech tempo, hand gestures, furrowed brows," he tells me. "We're trying to make sense of an impoverished channel of communication. We're trying to make ourselves understood." So, a wide smile in emoji form may not mean joy, but could instead mean a variety of expressions not easily interpreted by the receiver of the message