Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I am most grateful to my supervisor, Professor Zhao Xiaoling, whose useful suggestions, incisive comments and constructive criticism have contributed greatly to the completion of this thesis. She devotes a considerable portion of her time to reading my manuscripts and making suggestions for further revisions. Her tremendous assistance in developing the framework for analysis and in having gone through the draft versions of this thesis several times as well as her great care in life deserve more thanks than I can find words to express.

I am also greatly indebted to all my teachers who have helped me directly and indirectly in my studies. Any progress that I have made is the result of their profound concern and selfless devotion.
Last but not least, I owe much to my friends and classmates for their valuable suggestions and critiques which are of help and importance in making the thesis a reality.
Abstract
With the development of society and the progress of science and technology, people have been more used to communicating on the Internet. In network communication, people usually exchange information and convey feelings and ideas by using a keyboard-input text sequence as the main carrier of information. This is how Internet emoticons come into being. Although Internet emoticons look simple, but behind it there lay profound theories. With the clever use of signs and punctuations, it creates a new symbol, and by imitating human expression, it conveys a rich variety of meanings.

Internet emoticons as an auxiliary means of communication have become an integral part of online communication. It makes the ice-cold words easier to be understood by the people, and it even becomes a new language. So this article will briefly analyze the Internet emoticons from the aspect of Linguistics, and try to uncover the hidden secrets behind it.

The thesis consists of four parts. The introduction focuses on the types of Internet emoticons and the critical studies on Internet emoticons. Chapter two presents a semiotic analysis aiming to explain some basic questions about Internet emoticons. Chapter three focuses on another aspect of linguistic study of Internet emoticons, namely a pragmatic analysis aiming to solve the deeper interpretation of Internet emoticons. The Conclusion part summarizes the main points and clarifies the findings as well as the significance of the thesis.
Key Words: Internet emoticons, Linguistics, signs, non-verbal language
 
摘要
随着时代的发展和科学技术的进步，人们越来越习惯于网上交流，在网络交流中，人们经常通过使用键盘输入的文字作为主要的信息载体来进行信息的交换，这便是网络表情符号的由来。尽管网络表情符号看似简单，但是背后却蕴含着许多深刻的原理。 通过对符号和标点的巧妙应用，一种新的符号便诞生了，并且通过对人类表情的模仿，网络表情符号传递了各式各样的含义。

网络表情符号作为一种辅助交流手段已经成为了网络交流中不可或缺的一部分。他让冰冷的文字更易被人们理解，甚至已经成为了一种新的语言。所以本文将从语言学的角度简要分析网络表情符号，试着解开他们背后的秘密。

这篇论文分四个部分，介绍部分主要分析了网络表情符号的种类和已有的对表情符号的一些研究。第二章从符号学的角度解释了一些关于网络表情符号的基本问题。第三章主要从语言学的另一个方面，即语用学的角度分析并解释了对网络表情符号一些更深层次的理解。结论部分总结了主要观点，阐明了本论文的研究结果及意义所在。4409
关键词：表情符号，语言学，符号，非言语语言
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements.    i
Abstract.    ii
摘要.iii

1 Introduction.1 从语言学视角浅析网络表情符号英文论文:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_1062.html