Icons of expression 網(wǎng)絡(luò)中的表情符號(hào)面面觀

導(dǎo)讀：人們的創(chuàng)造力從未停止，社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的出現(xiàn)給人際交往帶來(lái)了便利，為了充分表達(dá)自我，人們又創(chuàng)造了表情符號(hào)，為單調(diào)的文字注入活力。

Emoji, or emoticons, are the picture-like characters many people find indispensable in their social networking communications. Emoji, which originated in Japan, allow people to liven up their texts with hundreds of colorful images. But if you use emoji like a second language, do you often feel there are still not enough emojis to express yourself?

表情符號(hào)是一種圖形化文字，是很多社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)用戶不可或缺的交流方式。表情符號(hào)源于日本，有了這些成百上千的彩色圖像，人們可以增加文字信息的生動(dòng)性。但如果你把表情符號(hào)當(dāng)成第二種語(yǔ)言來(lái)使用，會(huì)不會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這些符號(hào)由于數(shù)量有限，不足以表達(dá)你的情感?

Laura Ustick, manager of a fast-food chain in Illinois, US, found there are emoji for ice-cream, pizza and sushi, but not for the all-American hot dog. That’s why Ustick and other emoji fans are taking action to get more emoji.

美國(guó)伊利諾亞州一家快餐連鎖店的經(jīng)理勞拉·尤斯蒂克發(fā)現(xiàn)，代表冰激凌、披薩和壽司表情符號(hào)很常見(jiàn)，但就是沒(méi)有最能代表美國(guó)的熱狗的符號(hào)。這也是尤斯蒂克和其他表情符號(hào)粉們采取行動(dòng)，呼吁更多表情符號(hào)的原因。

“When we want to write something cute, it’s just not there,” Ustick complained to The Wall Street Journal.

“當(dāng)我們想用文字賣萌時(shí)，卻沒(méi)有合適的表情符號(hào)，”尤斯蒂克在接受《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》采訪時(shí)抱怨道。

Other fans are lobbying for symbols like cupcakes, bacon and unicorns, according to the newspaper. The BBC also reported on a petition posted on DoSomething.org calling on Apple to increase the ethnic diversity found within its emoji keyboard. The petition says the keyboard already offers a graphicshowing a same-sex couple, and calls on the company to present people with a wider range of skin tones.

據(jù)該報(bào)報(bào)道，其他“表情粉”們正在為諸如紙杯蛋糕、培根和獨(dú)角獸等表情符號(hào)進(jìn)行游說(shuō)。英國(guó)廣播公司BBC同樣也報(bào)道了一封發(fā)布于“有所作為網(wǎng)”(DoSomething.org)的請(qǐng)?jiān)笗?shū)，文中呼吁蘋(píng)果公司在輸入法增加表情符號(hào)的多樣性。請(qǐng)?jiān)笗?shū)中提到，蘋(píng)果輸入法已經(jīng)存在表達(dá)同性情侶的圖像，他們呼吁該公司可以提供更多不同膚色的人物表情。

Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech firms design their own versions of how the more than 800 basic emoji characters appear, but they tend to present most human characters as being white. In the Apple keyboard, only two of the symbols seem to be Asian and none are black.

盡管蘋(píng)果、谷歌、微軟以及其它科技公司各自設(shè)計(jì)出不同版本的800種基本表情符號(hào)，但他們?cè)O(shè)計(jì)的人物頭像大多數(shù)都是白人。在蘋(píng)果鍵盤輸入法中，只有兩個(gè)符號(hào)看似亞洲人，而黑人符號(hào)一個(gè)也沒(méi)有。

In response to the DoSometing.org petition, an Apple spokesperson last month told MTV that “we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set.”

上個(gè)月針對(duì)“有所作為網(wǎng)”上的請(qǐng)?jiān)笗?shū)，蘋(píng)果公司的一名發(fā)言人在接受MTV音樂(lè)電視網(wǎng)采訪時(shí)表示：“我們正在與統(tǒng)一碼聯(lián)盟進(jìn)行緊密合作，努力更新已有標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。表情字符集確實(shí)需要多樣化。”

Emoji regulator

表情符號(hào)調(diào)試者

Not everyone can design an emoji symbol. As it turns out, emoji are largely controlled by a nonprofit group called the Unicode Consortium, formed by computer programmers in the 1980s. The consortiumdesigned the Unicode Standard, a coding system to fit worldwide platforms and various languages.

并非所有人都可以設(shè)計(jì)表情符號(hào)。事實(shí)上，表情符號(hào)主要由非營(yíng)利性組織統(tǒng)一碼聯(lián)盟掌控。該組織由一批電腦程序員創(chuàng)立于上世紀(jì)八十年代，曾設(shè)計(jì)出適用于世界各地的網(wǎng)絡(luò)平臺(tái)以及多種語(yǔ)言的編碼系統(tǒng)——統(tǒng)一碼標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

Unicode decided to take on emoji after problems emerged in understanding Japanese e-mails filled with the symbols, Mark Davis, co-founder of the consortium and a software architect for Google, told The Wall Street Journal.

該聯(lián)盟創(chuàng)始人之一、谷歌軟件構(gòu)架師馬克·戴維斯在接受《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》采訪時(shí)表示，當(dāng)看到一封充滿表情符號(hào)、難以理解的日文郵件時(shí)，統(tǒng)一碼聯(lián)盟決定解決這個(gè)難題，為表情符號(hào)編碼。

Davis says the consortium generally encodes symbols already in existence. So most emoji available today are from the original ones created in Japan.

戴維斯說(shuō)，聯(lián)盟一般會(huì)對(duì)現(xiàn)存表情符號(hào)進(jìn)行編碼。因此當(dāng)前可用的表情符號(hào)大部分來(lái)自日本最初的原型。

New symbols are added periodically. Once Unicode greenlights an emoji, individual tech companies decide whether to include it in their operating systems, Davis says.

表情符號(hào)會(huì)定期更新。一旦統(tǒng)一碼聯(lián)盟給某個(gè)表情符號(hào)開(kāi)了綠燈，每個(gè)科技公司就要考慮是否在其操作系統(tǒng)中添加這一表情符，戴維斯說(shuō)道。

Bernie Hogan, an Oxford University research fellow, studies the use of emoji as part of his research into how people represent themselves on the Internet.

伯尼·霍根是牛津大學(xué)研究員，他的研究領(lǐng)域就包括人們?cè)诰W(wǎng)絡(luò)上如何使用表情符號(hào)來(lái)表達(dá)自我。

Emoji may sound like a trivial matter, but “it is a way to augment texts with clear expressive power”, he told the BBC.

表情符號(hào)聽(tīng)起來(lái)可能微不足道，但“它是一個(gè)有效增強(qiáng)文本表達(dá)效果的方式”，霍根接受BBC采訪時(shí)表示。

“If they restrict the sort of people who are used in the images it restricts users’ expressive power — people won’t feel that the emoji speak for them,” he says.

“如果圖譜中的人種符號(hào)受到限制，那么用戶的表達(dá)能力也會(huì)受到約束——人們會(huì)覺(jué)得表情符號(hào)無(wú)法充分表達(dá)自己。”他說(shuō)道。