Symbols

I realized how difficult it is to talk about symbols when I read a blog wherein was said:
http://pmulder.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html

" ...explains the use of the emotional symbols   :-),  ;-)  ... "

where the author is talking about happy-faces-in-type as symbolic of emotional states.

I think "symbol" should be a carrier of meaning. A happy face doesn't "mean" anything necessarily; it is a representation or mimicry.

Happy faces are "billboards", "stand-ins", or "typesetters' puns". To call them "symbols" really messes things up.