Paper short abstract:

This study investigates the structure and function of LINE stickers. The sociolinguistic analysis revealed specific gender differences not only in the images chosen but also in functional aspects, why and to what purpose LINE stickers are used.

Paper long abstract:

In Japan, the popular messenger LINE provides not only the function of conventional graphicons (Herring and Dainas 2017) like emoji and other emoticons, but also of virtual stickers スタンプ which are visual supplements to language as well (Kato 2017). Stickers differ from emoji and other emoticons in that they are larger in size (Wang 2016) and that they have to be sent separately and cannot be integrated into a text message. The illustrations of the stickers can represent virtually anything, but body images are particularly common. In order to assess gender differences in the illustrations of the stickers as well as in the actual usage style, 505 screenshots of natural LINE communication were collected and analyzed in a small-scale language corpus consisting of 764 stickers sent by 140 university students in Kyoto during September-October 2017. The sociolinguistic analysis revealed specific gender differences not only in the images chosen but also in functional aspects, why and to what purpose LINE stickers are used.

Herring, S., and A. Dainas (2017). "Nice Picture Comment!" Graphicons in Facebook Comment Threads. In Proceedings of the Fiftieth Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Press. https://doi.org/10.24251/HICSS.2017.264.

Kato, Y. (2017). LINE no sutanpu ga shiyō sareru jōkyō ni kansuru kiso chōsa [Basic Survey on the Use of LINE Stamps]. Journal of information and media studies, 3, 21-34.

Wang, S. S. (2016). More Than Words? The Effect of Line Character Sticker Use on Intimacy in the Mobile Communication Environment. Social Science Computer Review, 34(4), 456-478.