Investigating the pragmatic meaning of the smiley emoticon on Whatsapp groups: a cyberpragmatics perspective

was the extralingual equivalent analysis method. The steps used in the analysis of research data were described as follows: selection, classification, and interpretation. The results of the research were presented as follows: (1) Emoticons show the intention of satisfaction and happiness, (2) Emoticons show the intention to tease with praise, (3) Emoticons show the intention of being overly excited, (4) Emoticons show the intention of worrying, (5) Emoticons show the meaning of gratitude is full of joy, (6) Emoticons show the intention of gratitude with a smile and pride, (7) Emoticons show enthusiasm and a feeling of joyful joy.


Introduction
Research on pragmatic meaning related to language which is related to technology is very interesting to do. The involvement of technology as the part of culture in linguistics has led to extraordinary rapid development in recent times. In relation to pragmatics as the newest branch of linguistics, the presence of technology with all its digital and internet developments gave birth to a new branch of pragmatics called 'Internet-mediated Pragmatics' (Yus, 2016).
Several pragmatic studies related to technology could be mentioned, including: Cyberpragmatics, Genres in the Internet, Approaches to Internet Pragmatics, Pragmatics of Computer-Mediated Communication, Pragmatics of Social Media, Internet Pragmatics, The Semiotics of Emoji, Pragmatik: Konteks Ektralinguistik dalam Perspektif Cyberpragmagics. The works mentioned above show only a few of the works in the form of reference books on language, especially pragmatics which is related to the internet. It is a certain that there are many journal articles and papers in various seminars and cannot be mentioned one by one in this short writing. This confirms that research related to the internet in linked with language has been carried out quite in depth and extensively (Orsini-Jones et al., 2019). Concerns still need to be conveyed for the pragmatics which is still developing in this country.
Scholars of pragmatics tend to still dwell a lot on pragmatic elements that exist in Indonesia, both in the perspective of culture-specific and general pragmatics. Most experts assume that domestic pragmatic problems have not been much resolved. However, it also needs to be reflected that this is actually an indication that research on pragmatics in this country has not been entirely encouraging because it is not in line with the development of the language itself.
For example, are the phenomena of politeness and unpoliteness in language from an online perspective the same as a conventional perspective? . Of course, the answer is no. Likewise, is it true that hate speech and fake news that appear on social media are the realm of conventional pragmatic studies? Of course, the answer is also no. The role of digital images and graphics, such as emoji and emoticons, which its existence clearly cannot be separated from the presence of pragmatics in the perspective of the internet, is it appropriate to interpret it with conventional contextual devices? Of course, the answer is no. So, it is crystal clear that language, which is essentially a coin, has two sides; with culture is closely related to technological developments.
The meaning of language from a technological perspective, of course, cannot be separated from technology itself. The formulation of context in a new perspective with a virtual dimension is now an urgency because it could be possible that the conventional context is no longer relevant to be used as a speaker's intent analysis tool (Rahardi, 2018). Smiley emoticons as one of the manifestations of intentions with an image that has emotional nuances and icons are now increasingly appearing on various social media. There is a debate as to whether emoticons with all their various manifestations act as contexts or act as objects of the research itself. Authors tend to say that both are possible. In this regard, consider the following example. In a text, a sad emoticon which pictures people who are crying like that could appear without speech because actually without speech even the meaning of the emoticon is very clear. The linguistic entity that precedes the emoticon becomes the context of the intent conveyed through this emoticon. Thus, it can be emphasized that in certain cases, the depiction of icons that are loose without such speech already has a clear meaning. In the event that emoticons are present to clarify the meaning of speech, it must be said that emoticons are the context of the pragmatic meaning of an utterance (Page, 2014).
The author wants to emphasize that people should not be too hasty in blaming the view that says that emoticons have no meaning and can only serve as contexts that determine intent. In the following excrept example, the emoticon functions as a context because its job is to emphasize the meaning contained in the speech. A: Kamu keren sekali! Bisa menjawab semua pertanyaan dosen dengan benar semua. Wah gila abiss! (You are so cool! (You) can answer all the lecturer's questions correctly. Wow that's crazy!) B: Aku sangat bersyukur, usahaku tidak sia-sia.
(I'm very grateful, my efforts were not in vain.) This study was intended to describe the meaning contained in the smiley emoticons on Whatsapp as shown in the example above in various situations. This study deliberately limited the social media platform in this study considering the use of these icons is very abundant in the social media. The abundance of data was one of the considerations of researchers in determining the object of study. Furthermore, it was necessary to explain that the object of this study of emoticon research appears in connection with the development of language in relation with technology. In pragmatics, the development of the youngest branch of linguistics related to technology is called cyberpragamtics. Fransisco Yus (2012) fully had described it as follows: 'Cyberpragmatics addresses a whole range of interactions that can be found on the Net: the web page, chat rooms, instant messaging, social networking sites, 3D virtual worlds, blogs, videoconference, e-mail, Twitter, etc.' Furthermore, Rahardi (2021) asserted that cyberpragmatics is as follows, 'Cyberpragmatics is the study of speaker's meanings by basing on the virtual external contexts in contrast to the conventional external contexts.' (Yus, 2012) Furthermore, related to the shift in context from the conventional external to the virtual external, Rahardi described four types of contexts in pragmatics; those are social, social, cultural, and situational. Regarding the cultural context, Rahardi emphasized that the context refers to the cultural background and norms of life that are inter-cultural, cross-cultural, and culturally specific . The mentioned view was conveyed as follows: 'Cultural context refers to cultural background and life values and norms of a certain community. It refers to the values and norms whether interculturally, cross-culturally, and specific culturally.' Furthermore, related to the situational context, it was explained that the context refers to the situation that forms the background of the speech. This context indicates whether the situation is formal, informal, relaxed, tense, etc. as described in full as follows: 'Situational context refers to any atmosphere and situations forming the background of the utterances of the speakers. It refers to whether the situation is formal, informal, relaxed, tense, etc.' As for the social and situational dimensions, Rahardi emphasized that the social context has a horizontal dimension, while the societal context has a vertical dimension . In more details he stated, 'Social context refers to horizontal relations among individuals in a community. Social context refers to the social distance.Societal context refers to vertical relations among individuals in a community. Societal context refers to social status, social rank.' Understanding the type of context presented above is very important because it influences the determination of intentions related to technological developments. Pragmatics which focuses on finding the speaker's intent with attention to the interaction of meaning that is related to technology by paying attention to the virtual external context is what is interpreted as cyberpragmatics (Locher & Graham, 2010).
The above theories are used as the frame of reference in this study. In addition, the external virtual context theory is used as an analytical tool. This is in line with what some experts have emphasized that pragmatics, whatever its form, focuses on finding the speaker's intent. It should also be noted that research in the field of pragmatics has shifted towards cyber-text-based pragmatics as a result of technological developments (Andrea & Ágnes, 2019). The development of technology has changed the linguistics landscape and pragmatics landscape so that pragmatics research has shifted to adapt to the demands of language use in accordance with the times. Research in the field of pragmatics in cybertext-based pragmatics, cyberpragmatics, remains focused on finding the speaker's meaning or speaker's intent. The tool to find intent is also still context, but the external context landscape has shifted from the conventional external to the virtual one (Orsini-Jones et al., 2019).
Then, the problem in this research was formulated as follows: What are the pragmatic meanings of smiley emoticons in cyberpragmatics research? In line with the formulation of the problem, the purpose of this study was to describe the pragmatic meaning contained in smiley emoticons in cyberpragmatics research. This research was useful both theoretically and practically. The practical benefits of this research were closely related to the development of cybertext-based pragmatics research, namely cyberpragmatics (Locher, 2013). The theoretical benefit, meanwhile, was to develop pragmatics theory and virtual external contexts to accompany the development of increasingly complex language meanings in today's era of abundance. The research problem above was solved by applying the equivalent analysis method, especially the extralingual equivalent. Certain experts call this kind of analysis method a contextual analysis method because it is based on contextual entities.

Methods
This study of the pragmatic meaning of smiley emoticons is a qualitative one. The source of locational data of this research was social media, especially Whatsapp which was taken in a certain period around the time of the research. In this study, the Whatsapp group that was used as a source of locational data was created by students who were appointed as the assistant to collect data in this study. Furthermore, the source of the substantive data of this research were excerpts of speech in which there were certain expressive meanings that were emotive. The object of this research was the pragmatic meaning of emoticons in speech. Thus, the data of this study were emoticons in speech that described certain intentions. The object of the research and the data could be obtained from substantive data sources in the form of texts that was above the data.
Data was collected by using the reading method accompanied by note-taking techniques (Mahsun, 2005). The properly collected data were then classified to get good data and bad data. The data analyzed in this study were good data which had been followed up with data classification steps and data typification steps. Prior to data analysis, the typified research data were validated by applying expert triangulation and theoretical triangulation. The analytical method used in this study was the extralingual equivalent analysis method or what was often referred to as the contextual method (Sudaryanto, 2015).
As for the entity used to match was the context of the speech so that the right meaning was found and could be methodologically accounted for. The steps used in the analysis of research data were listed as follows: selection, classification, and interpretation.

Results and Discussion
The research results of the pragmatic meaning of smiley emoticons were as follows: (1) Emoticons showed the intent of satisfaction and happiness, (2) emoticons showed the intent of teasing with praise, (3) emoticons showed the intent of excessive joy, (4) emoticons showed the intent of worry, (5) emoticons showed the intent of joyful gratitude, (6) emoticons showed the intent of gratitude by smiling and being proud, (7) emoticons showed enthusiasm and feelings of joy full of spirit. The findings in this study could be seen in more detail in Table 1 In this section, each of the findings presented was attempted to be analyzed and interpreted based on justifiable arguments. Besides being subject to subjective arguments from the researcher, these findings were also argued based on relevant and supportive reference sources. The following is the discussion of each of these findings one by one.

The smiley emoticon which conveyed joy and happiness
The feeling of joy and happiness was expressed by the emoticon of a grimacing face with wide smiling eyes. Wide open lips and eyes with a happy nuance were shown in both of them. The emoticon emphasized the context that occurred in the conversation between friends. The interlocutor was very grateful and happy because his/her efforts were not in vain. With hard work and diligent study that he/she had done, he/she could answer the lecturer's questions well.
For students, of course, that was a joy and happiness in itself. Then, behind the response of B's speech, the emoticon expressing joy and happiness was added. Apart from being a context confirmation, actually the smiley emoticon was also able to express the meaning of joy and happiness. Thus the progress of digital technology, especially graphics that was happening in the cyber perspective, language in the sense of graphics could turn out to be an object of pragmatics research (Yus, 2016).
This shifts from the perception previously conveyed by a number of experts, that linguistics is purely the study of human language. Technological developments seem to be forcing such perceptions to shift, although of course it is not easy to change the perception of previous experts who tend to believe that the language analyzed in linguistics is human language only.
In this regard, the snippet of Data 1: DS1 from speaker A which reads, 'Kamu keren sekali! Bisa menjawab semua pertanyaan dosen dengan benar semua. Wah gila abiss!' (You are so cool! (You) can answer all the teacher's questions correctly. Wow, that's crazy!) and then partner B responded with a smiley emoticon that reads, 'Aku sangat bersyukur, usahaku tidak sia-sia.' (I'm very grateful, my efforts were not in vain), was very important to pay attention to. Also pay attention to the representation of smiley emoticons as expressing feelings of joy and happiness in the speech excerpts in Data 1: DS1 below. The context: The conversation occurred between friends. The interlocutor was very grateful and happy because his effort was not in vain, thanks to which he was able to answer the lecturer's questions well that day.
2. The smiley emoticon which conveyed the intent of teasing with praise Sometimes people shed tears because they feel happiness that comes suddenly. Tears of joy are different from tears of pain or even sorrow. In the speech snippet in Data 2: DS2, speaker A teased the interlocutor with an utterance such as a compliment which reads, 'Ngga ada lawan nih, kalo urusan minta duit ke bokap dia jagonya. Kerjaannya ngales mulu.' (What a whiz, when it comes to asking for money from his father, he is the best. It's a lousy job). It was this utterance of praise with a teasing that caused the tears to shed to the interlocutor B. By responding, 'Apaan sih lu, ngeledek mulu kayak si dedek' (What the heck are you, making fun of me like the lil bro), the interlocutor B was actually proud of the speaker A's teasing and praise. n terms of using the smiley emoticon, the outcome of happiness because being praised was depicted by a face that looked open, mouth and lips widening optimally to the right and left, and the image of eyes which were also widening showed a feeling of happiness. Tears seemed to be flowing out of the eyes of the interlocutor.
Pragmatics in cyber perspective could not be separated from graphic illustrations as depicted in such smiley emoticon . Human language in a graphical perspective could be manifested in graphic illustrations as seen in Data 2: DS2 below.
Readers are welcome to pay close attention to the form of the speech and its context, both the context in the form of a narrative of events and the context in the form of graphic illustrations. The author would like to emphasize that related to the smiley emoticon in Data 2: DS2, the graphic image carried out both functions, namely as the context of the meaning of the utterance and as the conveyer of the meaning of the utterance itself. dedek' (What the heck are you, making fun of me like the lil bro).
The context: The conversation was between friends. The speaker teased the interlocutor with a joke regarding his/her habit asking his/her father for money easily. As a result, the speech became a laughing joke.

The smiley emoticon which conveyed the intent of excessive joy
Laughing generally indicates joy and happiness. People who can laugh usually tend to be healthier in mind and body than people who are gloomy because they are full of disappointments in their daily lives. Sometimes people laugh out loud because they feel there is something funny, so that the laugh seems exaggerated. In the case of smiley emoticons, the excess excitement is seen in the illustration on Data 3: DS3.
The picture is similar with the laughing emoticon which was full of joy and happiness; but it is depicted sideways because the laughter causes him/her to roll on the floor. In connection with the speech in Data 3: DS3 below, the smiley emoticon was placed behind speaker A's speech. It could be said that this position showed that its role was actually as an affirmation of intent or just as context. However, it should also be noted that graphically in the study of cyber pragmatics, this smiley emoticon represented a specific purpose. Pay attention to the speech of speaker A in the following snippet of Data 3: DS3 which reads, 'Suaramu benarbenar membuat aku tertawa sampai perutku sakit. Lebih baik kamu diam saja hahahaha' (Your voice really makes me laugh until my stomach hurts. It's better for you to be quiet hahahaha). The speech delivered by speaker A was then responded by the interlocutor B as follows, 'Fiks kamu receh sekali, seperti recehan uang' (You really are an embodiment of dry jokes, dry as a desert). Graphic illustration which in pragmatics had never been reached, in cyber pragmatics it actually can be used as a research object.
This was in line with what was conveyed by Francisco Yus who emphasized that in cyber pragmatics, the pragmatic landscape has changed to be much wider as a result of technological developments. Language can never be separated from culture from then until now (Haider, 2019). Likewise, language can never be separated from the its users because language is actually the benggala mirror of its people. Because language cannot be separated from culture, and technology is the part of culture itself, it must also be said that language and technology cannot be separated from one another. (You really are an embodiment of dry jokes, dry as a desert.) The context: The conversation occurred between friends. The speaker laughed out loud when he/she saw the interlocutor singing. He was very easy to laugh until he bursts out laughing.

The smiley emoticon which conveyed worry
Everyone has been worried and full of doubts. In the face of something new, something difficult, or something challenging, those worries may arise. Parents also seem to worry a lot about their children who are immature and not yet established in their lives. When a child wants to go to a certain city to try his luck, let's say, parental worries are always present with him. So, it is clear that everyone has experienced worry in his/her life. In a friendship, worries can arise. Even with the closest friends, people may feel worried that their personal secrets would be shared with others.
When a person is feeling worried, his/her face does not seem to show happiness and joy. People who are worried look a little gloomy and not as bright as when they are feeling happiness and pride. In the following emoticon in Data 4: DS4, the worry icon was indicated by a grin, extending along his wide mouth. His eyes didn't seem to be wide with satisfaction and happiness, but they were rounded to show sadness. So, it's very clear that the emoticons like in Data 4: DS4 below, the pragmatic intent was described.
It also meant that the emoticon was not merely a context but as a graphic medium to convey the meaning itself. So, for the utterances conveyed by A and by B the emoticon could actually be presented in two manifestations, namely as a context of meaning and as a revealer of the pragmatic meaning itself. Cyber pragmatics was related to the second issue. Its presence could not be separated from semio-pragmatics because actually emoticons were sign manifestations which could be interpreted (Halliday, 1975). Readers are welcome to look at the the smiley emoticon image and speech snippets in Data 4: DS4 below to get a better idea of the meaning of the previous explanation.
(You're always weird when you're hungry..) B: Maaf ya ngga bermaksud begitu (Sorry, didn't mean that) The context: The conversations occurred between friends. Speakers felt that the interlocutor acts weird when she/he was hungry. So that the interlocutor replies by using a grimacing face emoticon because he/she showed worry/shame to the speaker due to his/her own attitude.

The smiley emoticon which conveyed the intent of joyful gratitude
People from Western cultures and languages are generally said to be more expressive in expressing gratefulness and the state or quality of being sorry. In spoken English texts, for example, this fact seems to stick out very well. On the other hand, Indonesians, who in fact have an Eastern culture that emphasizes Eastern politeness, have actually lost to Westerners whose icons are individualistic, not communal and not social (Rahardi, 2016).
However, along with technological changes in using social media, people's habits of expressing gratitude with the abbreviation 'tks' (from terima kasih), or 'nwn' (from javanes nuwun), or maybe also 'trims' (from terima kasih), gradually began to appear a lot. With the fact that later on, the icon that Indonesians find it difficult to say thank you, or at least lose to Westerners, will increasingly be dismissed in the future. When someone expresses his gratitude with a 'thank you', it was usually accompanied by a glowing face filled with relief and satisfaction.
In the emoticon presented in Data 5: DS5 below, the relief and satisfaction when people were grateful were illustrated by the illustration of eyes that are both wide open and filled with joy. White widening teeth which showed a sign that he/she was feeling relieved were also clearly depicted in the emoticon Data 5: DS5.
In connection with the speech conveyed by A, 'Selamat yaa kamu! Semoga sukses student exchangenya dan bisa ketemu oppa-oppa korea disana!' (Congratulations! Good luck with the student exchange and you can meet Korean oppas there!) and B's speech, 'Wah! Terima kasih. Hehehe tau aja aku suka oppa korea' (Wow! Thank you Hehehe, you know, I like Korean oppas), the presence of this emoticon could be used as a context of meaning and could also be used as an expression of the meaning itself. Take a closer look at Data 5: DS5 below. The context: The conversations occurred between friends. The speaker gave praise in the form of congratulatory expression on passing the student exchange selection in Korea. Then the interlocutor replied by saying thank you with the happy emoticon.

The smiley emoticon which conveyed gratitude with a proud smile
The emoticon with the nuance of a beaming face with closed eyes could be seen from the emoticon in Data 6: DS6 below. The manifestation of the smiley emoticon came along with Speaker A's speech which reads, 'Nanti sore ada tukang untuk benerin pintu, mau kesini jam 4 sore rencananya. Apa kamu ada di kos?' (This evening, there will be a handyman to fix the door, he plans to come here at 4 pm. Are you at the boarding house?), with a response to the speech delivered by interlocutor B which reads, 'Ada, Mas. Nanti berkabar sajaa santuy.' (Yes, Mas. I'll be here, just let each other know later). Smiling is a glory. So, if people love smiling, in fact that person spreads glory. Everyone who is given a smile, almost certainly feels proud and happy. On the other hand, if a person never gives a smile in his/her life with others, in his neighbors, in making friends with his colleagues, it is certain that other people will not like him much in his/her daily life.
People who smile a lot are also said to stay young because happiness and joy in life have their own power to support themselves and maintain their health (Helliwell & Putnam, 2004). The smiley emoticon in Data 6: DS6 was illustrated with closed eyes, even though people are showing their joy and happiness. Facts did prove a lot; people close their eyes when they are laughing out loud with their happiness. To the point it's been said that people can run away and leave them be when they laugh with their eyes closed. The following illustration of the smiley emoticon in Data 6: DS6 along with the speech could be considered further to understand this better.  (Bourgeois & Hess, 2008). In the following Data 7: DS7, the emoticon that showed a feeling of happiness and joy complements the speech delivered by interlocutor B which reads, 'Halo selamat datang di grup UKM Pengabdian Masyarakat, disini nantinya akan menjadi informasi terkait UKM selama satu tahun yaa.. Jika ada yang ditanyakan langsung saja pc teman-teman pengurus di sini yaaa' (Hello, welcome to the UKM Pengabdian Masyarakat Community Service group, here will be information related to UKM for one year. If you have any questions, just ask the administrators' pcs here, okay?) in response to speaker A's speech which reads, 'Hai, perkenalkan nama saya Nicolaus, salam kenal mbak mas sekalian' (Hi, my name is Nicolaus, nice to meet you, ladies and gentlemen).
In other words, not only smiley emoticons could be used as a speech context, but it could also be used as a conveyer of speech intent. So, it would be wrong to say that smiley emoticons only served as context in pragmatics. In certain cases, smiley emoticons could be present alone in response to an utterance. In the latter case, the smiley emoticon was referred to as an icon conveying the meaning of speech. Readers are welcome to look at Data 7: DS7 in the following snippet to better understand this issue.

Conclusion
This research produced findings of the pragmatics meaning of the following smiley emoticons: (1) Emoticons showed the intent of satisfaction and happiness, (2) emoticons showed the intent of teasing with praise, (3) emoticons showed the intent of excessive joy, (4) emoticons showed the intent of worry, (5) emoticons showed the intent of joyful gratitude, (6) emoticons showed the intent of gratitude by smiling and being proud, (7) emoticons showed enthusiasm and feelings of joy full of spirit.Even so, the implementation of this research was still limited to initial studies with very limited data and data sources. On the more considerable scope, the researcher intended to carry out more comprehensive research on these smiley emoticons so that more complete pragmatics meanings of smiley emoticons could be found. Likewise, it would be clearer from the implementation of the more adequate research, which smiley emoticons act as meaning contexts, and meanings also function as revealers of the meaning itself. Other research perspectives that more accommodate the meaning of icons in the context of certain situations seem good to be carried out to further refine the implementation of this research.