I'd like to expand on volkerjaan's answer. I am Asperger myself.
I know what ;-( mean (though I know ^^ only as see above). I
don't necessarily understand when people are using them. I do
understand their origins, and I suspect that is what the
question boils down to. To explain what they mean: :-) — person
feels happy :-( — person feels sad ;-) — person is joking To
follow the conversation, it is not needed to understand the
meaning. It is enough to know the meaning. In my interpretation,
understanding is related to why. As an Asperger, the ability for
abstraction is often different from those in neurotypicals. So I
would explain it as follows. Emoticon explanation for Asperger
When we draw a face, we like to simplify things. For example,
sometimes we draw only a circle with dots for the eyes, and a
line for the mouth. For example, from the Wikipedia article on
smiley: This represents a face in an abstract way. The face is
happy, because the edges of the mouth are turned upward. Of
course, a real face looks