本文摘要：Emoji, or emoticons, are the picture-like characters many people find indispensable in their social networking communications. Emoji, which originated in Japan, allow people to liven up their texts with hundreds of colorful images. But if you use emoji like a second language, do you often feel there are still not enough emojis to express yourself?表情符号是一种图形化文字，是很多社交网络用户不可或缺的交流方式。

Emoji, or emoticons, are the picture-like characters many people find indispensable in their social networking communications. Emoji, which originated in Japan, allow people to liven up their texts with hundreds of colorful images. But if you use emoji like a second language, do you often feel there are still not enough emojis to express yourself?表情符号是一种图形化文字，是很多社交网络用户不可或缺的交流方式。表情符号源自日本，有了这些成百上千的彩色图像，人们可以减少文字信息的生动性。但如果你把表情符号当作第二种语言来用于，不会会找到这些符号由于数量受限，足以传达你的情感？Laura Ustick, manager of a fast-food chain in Illinois, US, found there are emoji for ice-cream, pizza and sushi, but not for the all-American hot dog. That’s why Ustick and other emoji fans are taking action to get more emoji.美国伊利诺亚州一家快餐连锁店的经理劳拉·尤斯蒂克找到，代表冰激凌、披萨和寿司表情符号很少见，但就是没最能代表美国的热狗的符号。

这也是尤斯蒂克和其他表情符号粉们采取行动，敦促更加多表情符号的原因。“When we want to write something cute, it’s just not there,” Ustick complained to The Wall Street Journal.“当我们想要用文字卖萌时，却没适合的表情符号，”尤斯蒂克在拒绝接受《华尔街日报》专访时责怪道。Other fans are lobbying for symbols like cupcakes, bacon and unicorns, according to the newspaper. The BBC also reported on a petition posted on DoSomething.org calling on Apple to increase the ethnic diversity found within its emoji keyboard. The petition says the keyboard already offers a graphic showing a same-sex couple, and calls on the company to present people with a wider range of skin tones.据该报报导，其他“表情粉”们正在为诸如纸杯蛋糕、培根和独角兽等表情符号展开游说。

英国广播公司BBC某种程度也报导了一封公布于“有所作为网”（DoSomething.org）的请愿书，文中敦促苹果公司在输入法减少表情符号的多样性。请愿书中提及，苹果输入法早已不存在传达同性情侣的图像，他们敦促该公司可以获取更加多有所不同肤色的人物表情。Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech firms design their own versions of how the more than 800 basic emoji characters appear, but they tend to present most human characters as being white. In the Apple keyboard, only two of the symbols seem to be Asian and none are black.尽管苹果、谷歌、微软公司以及其它科技公司各自设计出有有所不同版本的800种基本表情符号，但他们设计的人物头像大多数都是白人。在苹果键盘输入法中，只有两个符号看起来亚洲人，而黑人符号一个也没。

In response to the DoSometing.org petition, an Apple spokesperson last month told MTV that “we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set.”上个月针对“有所作为网”上的请愿书，苹果公司的一名发言人在拒绝接受MTV音乐电视网专访时回应：“我们正在与统一码联盟展开密切合作，希望改版有数标准。表情字符集显然必须多样化。”Emoji regulator表情符号调试者Not everyone can design an emoji symbol. As it turns out, emoji are largely controlled by a nonprofit group called the Unicode Consortium, formed by computer programmers in the 1980s. The consortium designed the Unicode Standard, a coding system to fit worldwide platforms and various languages.并非所有人都可以设计表情符号。

事实上，表情符号主要由非营利性的组织统一码联盟掌控。该的组织由一批电脑程序员创办于上世纪八十年代，曾设计出有限于于世界各地的网络平台以及多种语言的编码系统——统一码标准。Unicode decided to take on emoji after problems emerged in understanding Japanese e-mails filled with the symbols, Mark Davis, co-founder of the consortium and a software architect for Google, told The Wall Street Journal.该联盟创始人之一、谷歌软件构架师马克·戴维斯在拒绝接受《华尔街日报》专访时回应，当看见一封充满著表情符号、无法解读的日文邮件时，统一码联盟要求解决问题这个难题，为表情符号编码。Davis says the consortium generally encodes symbols already in existence. So most emoji available today are from the original ones created in Japan.戴维斯说道，联盟一般不会对现存表情符号展开编码。

因此当前能用的表情符号大部分来自日本最初的原型。New symbols are added periodically. Once Unicode greenlights an emoji, individual tech companies decide whether to include it in their operating systems, Davis says.表情符号不会定期改版。

一旦统一码联盟给某个表情符号进了绿灯，每个科技公司就要考虑到否在其操作系统中加到这一表情八字，戴维斯说。Bernie Hogan, an Oxford University research fellow, studies the use of emoji as part of his research into how people represent themselves on the Internet.伯尼·霍根是牛津大学研究员，他的研究领域就还包括人们在网络上如何用于表情符号来传达自我。Emoji may sound like a trivial matter, but “it is a way to augment texts with clear expressive power”, he told the BBC.表情符号听得一起有可能微不足道，但“它是一个有效地强化文本传达效果的方式”，霍根拒绝接受BBC专访时回应。

“If they restrict the sort of people who are used in the images it restricts users’ expressive power — people won’t feel that the emoji speak for them,” he says.“如果图谱中的人种符号受到限制，那么用户的表达能力也不会受到约束——人们不会实在表情符号无法充份传达自己。”他说。

本文来源：c7平台官网-www.unclemaks.com