Pragmatic functions of wara in Japanese text messages

Abstract

Abstract This study illustrates the pragmatic functions of 笑 (wara), the kanji or Chinese character meaning “laughter,” on the text messaging application LINE, and identifies the online communication strategies using it across 68 text message chats shared by Japanese university students who insert this and other laughter characters in their text conversations. The study’s results suggest that various laughter characters, including (笑), 笑 and w, act as contextualization cues at the end of the sentence, performing three distinct functions: acknowledging humor in the preceding proposition, inviting laughter, and softening the illocutionary force. Analyzed using politeness theory, the second and third functions are respectively categorized as positive politeness and negative politeness. This study also argues that the first function reflects the writer’s subjectivity, whereas the second and third reflect the writer’s intersubjectivity.