Emoji semantic drift

[Leonardo Boiko]

This isn't news, but I find it interesting how some emoji are being used in
ways that differ from their Unicode names, reflecting alternative
interpretations of common glyphs. I'll compare data from the Unicode chart
with interpretations taken from Emojipedia, which I think do reflect
real-world usage:

U+1F617 KISSING FACE ��
Current keywords: face|kiss
→ whistle (= nonchalance ; happiness)
http://emojipedia.org/kissing-face/

U+1F481 INFORMATION DESK PERSON ��
≊ person tipping hand
Keywords: hand | help | information | sassy | tipping
→ sassy ; hair flick
http://emojipedia.org/information-desk-person/

U+1F601 GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES ��
Keywords: face | grin
→ grimace (discomfort, pain)
http://emojipedia.org/grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes/

U+1F624 FACE WITH LOOK OF TRIUMPH ��
≊ face with steam from nose
Keywords: face | triumph| won
→ angry; frustration; contemptuous
http://emojipedia.org/face-with-look-of-triumph/

I see that *some* of those alternative readings are registered in the
Unicode table as ≊ , while others are present in keywords, and still others
are absent.  Is there any criteria for that? Is someone trying to keep
track of emoji in use?

I think distributional methods are promising, as shown by Thomas Dimson:
http://instagram-engineering.tumblr.com/post/117889701472/emojineering-part-1-machine-learning-for-emoji

By this we find that, for example, U+1F46F WOMAN WITH BUNNY EARS, also
marked as *≊ people partying*, has additional connotations of
sisterhood—specifically female friendship and loyalty ( #sistasista,
#sistersforlife, #sistersister, #bestiesforlife, yearsoffriendship,
#sisterfromanothermister, #morelikesisters, #bffl, #bestiesfortheresties,
#bestfriendsforever ). U+1F647 PERSON BOWING DEEPLY �� is seeing use as a
marker of worry or shame ("late night thoughts", "deleting later", "in my
feelings", "laughing but very serious"); probably due to the emotion lines
drawn on most fontsets.
<http://unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-annotations.html#hand>
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