: ) is Language

Yes, : ) is language :-p . Written language, sign language, call it what you will, the boundaries are blurry when you consider that the Asian written languages consist of pictographs. It's all the same. Even hand gestures - waving, signaling a cab, putting a finger to your lips in a shushing gesture - are language. :-

Pointed silences are language. Giving someone the silent treatment is language. :-{

It's all about context. If something is done in a context that gives it meaning - or if it is done in a context that deliberately deflates or questions meaning - it is part of the language game ;^] .

Emoticons are the written equivalent of some of the Asian languages - like Vietnamese I believe - where inflection can totally change meaning. The same effect is achieved in English but it is more limited to sarcastic (or overtly ironic) inflections that simply negate the overt meaning of the words used, in a way that says, I mean the opposite of what I am saying. I.E., you and I can utter the same words in the same context but the inflection alone can be different and therefore the meaning completely changes.

Inflection is therefore language too, and communicated in written shorthand via emoticons and things like (:- /

/:^\ are modern hieroglyphics and represent an incursion of East to West, of right brain to left brain.