Digital tildes (“∼”) may convey more: analyzing innovative uses of tildes in Chinese WeChat messages

Abstract Innovative uses of punctuation in online communication have become increasingly visible in research and public awareness since the 2000s, whereas studies on the innovative use of tildes (“∼”) in digital use remain scarce. Drawing on a data set of 543 Chinese WeChat messages with sentence-final tildes, this article investigates the uses and functions of innovative tildes in online communication using quantitative data and follow-up interviews. The findings suggest that: (1) The innovative tildes are deployed in messages implying sounds and performing speech acts in online communication, and they are more frequently used in speech acts (e.g., expressives and directives in particular). (2) The innovative tildes convey sound extension, i.e., to compensate for the loss of audio information in online communication and reproduce elongated sounds; pragmatic function, i.e., to enhance or mitigate the illocutionary forces of speech acts; and entertaining function, i.e., to make messages informal, vivid, joyful, and interesting. (3) The innovative tildes are pragmalicalized as a result of their semiotic features and politeness motivation of messengers for maintaining rapport and achieving successful online communication.