pictograph

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Itasan
Posts: 557
Joined: Wed Nov 05, 2003 8:22 am
Location: Yokohama, Japan

pictograph

Post by Itasan » Tue Apr 18, 2006 12:18 am

;-) :-(
I understand such are called smileys or emoticons.
Young people these days seem to do more than those.
It seems that there are a lot of pictures prearranged,
particularly on the cellphone. e.g. a number of dots
under an airplane = rain.
It's not smiling. It doesn't show any emotion.
Could we still call them 'smileys' or 'emoticons'?
Or:
1. pictograph
2. picture word
3. pictorial symbol
4. any other common term for such a new type of symbols?

Thank you.

emile
Posts: 143
Joined: Mon May 31, 2004 11:05 am
Location: SE Asia
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Post by emile » Tue May 02, 2006 1:21 am

It's quite normal for the name of an object not to retain its original meaning.

For example, a 'computer', does more than compute. If I remember correctly, the Turkish word for computer is bilgisayar, which means 'knows how to count'.

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