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The emoticons and emojis have been raised with the word distinction of the year granted by the Urgent Spanish Foundation for seven years, promoted by the Efe Agency and BBVA . After choosing " escrache " in 2013, " selfi " in 2014, " refugee " in 2015, " populism " in 2016, " aporophobia " in 2017 and " microplastic " in 2018, the Foundation team has opted on this occasion to highlight the role of these small symbols in communication.

The emoticons and emojis (and their evolutions: bitmojis, memojis, animojis ...) are already part of our daily communication and conquer new spaces every day beyond private conversations in chat rooms and messaging applications in which their use began , says Fundéu BBVA in a statement.

Its undeniable impact on our daily lives, its interesting relationships with the rest of the elements that make up the communication (words, phrases, punctuation marks ...) and the perspectives that open for the future have led the Fundéu to yield to emoticons and emojis the word distinction of the year.

An invention of the nineties

The appearance in the nineties of the emoticons - small drawings created with spelling signs that were often read tilting the head: -) - and their evolution already in the 21st century towards the emojis (small figures drawn with symbolic value) have supposed a obvious change in the way we communicate.

"It is not, of course, that emoticons and emojis come to steal words or pervert our language, which has shown for centuries its ability to adapt to the new times and technologies of each era. Nor that we end up expressing ourselves alone with these types of elements. We believe that they constitute one more element that contributes to achieving the ultimate goal of languages: communication between people, "says the Fundéu BBVA general coordinator, Javier Lascuráin .

"In a world marked by speed, emoticons bring agility and conciseness. And in an environment where much of what we write, especially in chat rooms and instant messaging systems, is written oral communication, these elements give us they allow to add gestural and intentional nuances that would otherwise be lost, "he adds.

In addition - notes the note - many of them have the value of universality, of being able to be understood by people from very different cultures and languages. As stated by the president of the Fundéu BBVA, Mario Tascón , during his speech this year at the Congress of the Academies of the Language in Seville, "the emojis may be the closest thing to a universal language that humanity has never created."

From the point of view of language, the use of these small elements poses very interesting reflections and challenges that are already being addressed in academic works: how to use them in general texts, how they interact with the rest of the words, with the signs scoring ...

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