Should emoticons be regarded as punctuation marks?

Question

According to Wikipedia, “[p]unctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud”.

Does this make emoticons – when used along with a sentence, e.g., “I am good :)” – eligible to be considered as punctuation marks? They seem to satisfy the “intonation” criterion.

Answer 1

Apparently, there's as yet no canonical rule about emoticons.

As no one seems to have officially declared them as marks of punctuation or members of the class, emoticons cannot presently be treated as punctuation marks. Even where they incidentally appear to serve to punctuate a sentence, maybe.

The jury is still out on that one.

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A brief mention of interest: Emoticons as Punctuation Marks

Answer 2

Punctuation:

a mark, such as a full stop, comma, or question mark, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning.

Emoticon:

a representation of a facial expression such as a smile or frown, formed by various combinations of keyboard characters and used in electronic communications to convey the writer’s feelings or intended tone

So, no, emoticons are not punctuation, because they are not used "to separate sentences and their elements".

Answer 3

No, an emoticon is a symbol, not punctuation. Unicode clearly differentiates symbols such as math symbols and currency symbols, from punctuation, such as open or close punctuation.

For example, these are punctuation:

U+0002D ‭ -  GC=Pd HYPHEN-MINUS
U+0002E ‭ .  GC=Po FULL STOP
U+0002F ‭ /  GC=Po SOLIDUS
U+0003A ‭ :  GC=Po COLON
U+0003B ‭ ;  GC=Po SEMICOLON
U+0003F ‭ ?  GC=Po QUESTION MARK
U+0007B ‭ {  GC=Ps LEFT CURLY BRACKET
U+0007D ‭ }  GC=Pe RIGHT CURLY BRACKET
U+000A1 ‭ ¡  GC=Po INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK
U+000AB ‭ «  GC=Pi LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
U+000B7 ‭ ·  GC=Po MIDDLE DOT
U+000BB ‭ »  GC=Pf RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
U+000BF ‭ ¿  GC=Po INVERTED QUESTION MARK

whereas these are symbols:

U+000A2 ‭ ¢  GC=Sc CENT SIGN
U+000A3 ‭ £  GC=Sc POUND SIGN
U+000A4 ‭ ¤  GC=Sc CURRENCY SIGN
U+000A5 ‭ ¥  GC=Sc YEN SIGN
U+000A7 ‭ §  GC=So SECTION SIGN
U+0211E ‭ ℞  GC=So PRESCRIPTION TAKE
U+02122 ‭ ™  GC=So TRADE MARK SIGN
U+02260 ‭ ≠  GC=Sm NOT EQUAL TO
U+02261 ‭ ≡  GC=Sm IDENTICAL TO
U+02262 ‭ ≢  GC=Sm NOT IDENTICAL TO
U+02263 ‭ ≣  GC=Sm STRICTLY EQUIVALENT TO
U+02264 ‭ ≤  GC=Sm LESS-THAN OR EQUAL TO
U+02265 ‭ ≥  GC=Sm GREATER-THAN OR EQUAL TO
U+02266 ‭ ≦  GC=Sm LESS-THAN OVER EQUAL TO
U+02267 ‭ ≧  GC=Sm GREATER-THAN OVER EQUAL TO
U+02268 ‭ ≨  GC=Sm LESS-THAN BUT NOT EQUAL TO
U+02269 ‭ ≩  GC=Sm GREATER-THAN BUT NOT EQUAL TO
U+0226A ‭ ≪  GC=Sm MUCH LESS-THAN
U+0226B ‭ ≫  GC=Sm MUCH GREATER-THAN

And so too are all of these:

U+02639 ‭ ☹  GC=So WHITE FROWNING FACE
U+0263A ‭ ☺  GC=So WHITE SMILING FACE
U+0263B ‭ ☻  GC=So BLACK SMILING FACE
U+02666 ‭ ♦  GC=So BLACK DIAMOND SUIT
U+02667 ‭ ♧  GC=So WHITE CLUB SUIT
U+02695 ‭ ⚕  GC=So STAFF OF AESCULAPIUS
U+0269A ‭ ⚚  GC=So STAFF OF HERMES
U+026A2 ‭ ⚢  GC=So DOUBLED FEMALE SIGN
U+026A3 ‭ ⚣  GC=So DOUBLED MALE SIGN
U+026A4 ‭ ⚤  GC=So INTERLOCKED FEMALE AND MALE SIGN
U+026A5 ‭ ⚥  GC=So MALE AND FEMALE SIGN
U+026A6 ‭ ⚦  GC=So MALE WITH STROKE SIGN
U+026A7 ‭ ⚧  GC=So MALE WITH STROKE AND MALE AND FEMALE SIGN
U+1F430 ‭ 🐰  GC=So RABBIT FACE
U+1F431 ‭ 🐱  GC=So CAT FACE
U+1F432 ‭ 🐲  GC=So DRAGON FACE
U+1F4A9 ‭ 💩  GC=So PILE OF POO
U+1F4AA ‭ 💪  GC=So FLEXED BICEPS
U+1F4AB ‭ 💫  GC=So DIZZY SYMBOL
U+1F607 ‭ 😇  GC=So SMILING FACE WITH HALO
U+1F608 ‭ 😈  GC=So SMILING FACE WITH HORNS
U+1F631 ‭ 😱  GC=So FACE SCREAMING IN FEAR
U+1F63A ‭ 😺  GC=So SMILING CAT FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH
U+1F63B ‭ 😻  GC=So SMILING CAT FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES
U+1F427 ‭ 🐧  GC=So PENGUIN
U+1F428 ‭ 🐨  GC=So KOALA
U+1F429 ‭ 🐩  GC=So POODLE
U+1F42A ‭ 🐪  GC=So DROMEDARY CAMEL
U+1F648 ‭ 🙈  GC=So SEE-NO-EVIL MONKEY
U+1F649 ‭ 🙉  GC=So HEAR-NO-EVIL MONKEY
U+1F64A ‭ 🙊  GC=So SPEAK-NO-EVIL MONKEY
U+1F478 ‭ 👸  GC=So PRINCESS
U+1F479 ‭ 👹  GC=So JAPANESE OGRE
U+1F47A ‭ 👺  GC=So JAPANESE GOBLIN
U+1F47B ‭ 👻  GC=So GHOST
U+1F47C ‭ 👼  GC=So BABY ANGEL
U+1F47D ‭ 👽  GC=So EXTRATERRESTRIAL ALIEN
U+1F47E ‭ 👾  GC=So ALIEN MONSTER
U+1F47F ‭ 👿  GC=So IMP
U+1F480 ‭ 💀  GC=So SKULL
U+1F71A ‭ 🜚  GC=So ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR GOLD
U+1F71B ‭ 🜛  GC=So ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR SILVER
U+1F71C ‭ 🜜  GC=So ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR IRON ORE
U+1F71D ‭ 🜝  GC=So ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR IRON ORE-2

Answer 4

Punctuation is a symbol.

Written language is a symbol — that is, the letters are (or were) meant to be symbols of the sound they represent.

My opinion is that emoticons are not formal, integrated punctuation symbols as yet. Check back in a hundred years or so.

Answer 5

I think an emoticon is a picture. No one ever said a picture was punctuation, did they?