POLITENESS MAXIMS AND THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS OF EMOJIS IN STUDENT-LECTURER WHATSAPP COMMUNICATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31851/5e3fy354Keywords:
Politeness Maxims, Student-lecturer Communication, Emoji, WhatsAppAbstract
This study investigates how politeness is realized in digital academic communication by examining the use of politeness maxims and the pragmatic functions of the folded hands emoji in WhatsApp interactions between students and lecturers. The increasing use of digital communication in higher education has created a need to balance the informal nature of messaging platforms with institutional expectations of respect and professionalism. Despite growing interest in digital communication, limited research has explored how the folded hands emoji functions within politeness strategies in hierarchical academic contexts. This study addresses that gap through a qualitative pragmatic analysis of 50 authentic WhatsApp messages exchanged between English Department students and lecturers at the University of Pekalongan. The findings show that seven politeness maxims were identified, with the Obligation (Speaker to Other) Maxim occurring most frequently (50%), followed by the Tact Maxim (29.49%). The folded hands emoji mainly served three pragmatic functions: weakening (46.30%), enhancing (31.48%), and filling (22.22%), while no instances of challenging or substituting functions were observed. Overall, the results indicate that the folded hands emoji has become an established digital marker of politeness, helping students express respect, deference, and interpersonal sensitivity in academic communication with lecturers.
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