| Emojis are one of the many ways that people have been using in the modern age to help convey their true meaning when communicating through texts on social media. Younger generations such as Generation Z have taken advantage of it as a way of communicating nuanced emotions in recent years, yet not much research has gone into understanding the linguistic functions of emojis used. Using Escouflaire’s (2021) eight linguistic functions of emojis as the theoretical framework, this mixed method research aims to investigate and analyze the linguistic functions indicated by emojis for text-based communications on social media amongst Generation Z users. 10 screenshot of text messages from 10 consented participants using emojis throughout a specific timeline were collected. Afterwards, the messages were categorized correspondingly to a table based on the aforementioned typology with explanation given. The linguistic functions were then tallied to see the most frequent functions conveyed, and the results were interpreted. Results showed that all seven linguistic functions appeared during the analysis process, with some functions appearing more than others. In terms of its frequency, the expressive and interpretative function are the most frequently identified primary linguistic function, while the structural and emphatic functions are the most frequently identified secondary linguistic functions. These functions highlight how Generation Z uses emojis to communicate with each other on WhatsApp, and further demonstrate the functions of emojis present on text-based communications. |