AUTHOR=Lu Wanhong , Du Haoge , Gu Feng , Han Jianghua 

TITLE=The lexicalization of emojis: the influence of frequency and functions of emojis in sentences on this process—a study based on eye movement tracking

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 16 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1631967

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1631967

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=The lexicalization of emojis reflects the dynamic evolutionary characteristics of the linguistic symbol system in the digital age. The influence of usage frequency and the different functions of emojis in sentences on this process is also a research topic worthy of exploration. This study employed eye-tracking technology, with 98 native Chinese speakers as participants, and selected Chinese sentences as experimental stimuli to compare the processing differences of emojis with different frequencies (high frequency and low frequency) and different functions in sentences (Pro-text emojis, Co-text emojis, and words) during sentence reading. The research results show that: Significantly affects the first fixation duration and total fixation duration. High frequency emojis have shorter durations for these two indicators; in contrast, low-frequency emojis require more time for recognition and integration due to visual and semantic factors. Pro-text emojis have a longer fixation duration, while Co-text emojis have a shorter total fixation duration. In the integration stage, Pro-text emojis take longer to integrate. This difference is related to the unique cognitive pattern of emojis, which requires converting images into linguistic components before integrating them into sentences for comprehension. Co-text emojis, on the other hand, take less time, which may be attributed to the priming effect triggered by the text preceding Co-text emojis. There is no significant difference in the number of saccades between emojis and Chinese text, indicating certain similarities between the two. In conclusion, lexicalized Pro-text emojis can be integrated into daily language communication; high frequency emojis have greater advantages in lexical recognition and processing; different functions of emojis in sentences affect their roles in text and processing mechanisms. Conducting research with Chinese as the experimental material provides a new perspective for the study of emoji processing.