Investigating German multimodal requests in instant messaging

The current study quantitatively analyses the strategies employed by German native speakers when producing a request in instant messaging. Additionally, the multimodal resource of emoji available to users of messaging services is qualitatively analysed to outline its functions within requests. The data is collected from 68 Germans using a discourse completion task as an elicitation device. The results show that speakers seem to have a clear preference for conventionally indirect phrasing of requests. Over half of the requests included emoji fulfilling frame, mitigation, and relationship functions.