Is the rise of emoji a death sentence for written language?

There are concerns that the rise in the use of emoji – those small, often yellow-faced icons used to convey emotion or meaning in social media and digital messages – could bring about the end of written language. In this article in The Conversation, Professor Vyvyan Evans argues that no, that won’t happen. Rather, he says, emoji enhance our ability to communicate, similar to the way in which gestures enhance face-to-face speaking.