International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR)

Background: The increasing use of WhatsApp among university students has transformed patterns of interpersonal communication, particularly in academic contexts where interaction often involves requests, corrections, and disagreements. These exchanges can threaten participants’ social image, making the management of face-threatening acts an important aspect of digital communication. Emojis and emoticons have emerged as key resources for conveying tone and maintaining social balance in such interactions. However, while several studies have examined emoji use in digital communication, there remains a gap in understanding how emojis and emoticons are used specifically to mitigate face-threatening acts in WhatsApp interactions among Nigerian law undergraduates.
Objective: This study examined how undergraduate law students in Nigeria use these visual markers in WhatsApp communication to mitigate face-threatening acts, with particular attention to requests, corrections, disagreements, and interactional repair.
Method: A qualitative research design was adopted. WhatsApp messages were purposively collected from undergraduate law students at Godfrey Okoye University and the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. The population of the study consisted of undergraduate law students in the selected universities, from which a sample of 50 participants was drawn through purposive sampling based on their willingness to share relevant WhatsApp interactions involving face-threatening acts. The data were anonymised and analysed using Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory (1987) and Crystal’s Internet Linguistics (2011). A discourse-analytic approach was employed to identify patterns in the use, placement, and functions of emojis in managing face-threatening acts and the data were presented as selected anonymised WhatsApp chat excerpts organised into thematic categories. Results: The findings revealed that emojis were used strategically to soften requests, reduce the force of corrections and disagreements, and repair potentially offensive statements. Preemptive, inline, and post-hoc placement played distinct roles in shaping interpretation. While some emojis promoted friendliness and solidarity, others introduced ambiguity or, in some cases, intensified tension. The analysis also showed that group context and local interactional norms influenced how these markers were interpreted and used.
Conclusion: The study demonstrates that emojis function as important pragmatic tools in WhatsApp communication, enabling students to balance clarity with politeness in an academic environment. Their use reflects an awareness of social relationships and the need to manage face in both private and group interactions.
Unique Contribution: This study provides insight into how visual digital resources operate as part of language use in Nigerian academic contexts, highlighting their role as context-sensitive tools for managing interpersonal meaning in computer-mediated communication.
Key Recommendation: It is recommended that students and educators develop greater awareness of the communicative functions of emojis in academic interactions, and that digital communication skills, including the appropriate use of such visual markers, be incorporated into academic training.