Contour step three represents the package plots of land for Set step 3

07 Mar Contour step three represents the package plots of land for Set step 3

The common score try step 1.478 throughout the plosive status, 1.45 on the fricative reputation, step one.707 about nose status, and you may step 1.942 regarding drinking water standing. The lowest point inside the Table step three summarises the results from modeling away from Put 3. New standard is brand new fricative updates, and we compared this new plosive versus. fricative standards, the brand new nose against. fricative requirements, plus the water compared to. fricative requirements. Earliest, the difference between brand new plosive and you may fricative standards wasn’t credible, while the 95% CI of the coefficient guess integrated zero [?0.06, 0.09]. 2nd, the fresh new nose versus. fricative and you may liquids vs. fricative reviews showed that each of the newest coefficient prices was confident (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you will (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you can each of the 95% CIs didn’t are zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you can [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and so suggesting that nonce words having nasals and liquid was basically judged to get alot more kawaii brands than those with fricatives.

Discussion

The present day analysis indicated that (1) labial consonants may getting associated with the kawaii than just coronal and dorsal consonants, (2) high-frequency consonants are more likely to become with the kawaii than just low-volume consonants, and you will (3) water /?/ and nose /n/ may feel associated with kawaii than simply fricative /z/ (and you may plosive /d/). This type of abilities advise that the area-of-articulation element of kawaii is [labial], in addition to frequency element from the kawaii was [high-frequency]. The way-of-articulation element requires after that discussion. As the consonant indicating the highest mediocre score try liquids /?/, we could think your trends-of-articulation element with the kawaii was [liquid]. But not, as the Bayesian studies presented, nose /n/ is far more probably be regarding the kawaii than fricative /z/. Therefore, we are able to end one to liquids and you can nasals, each of which are [sonorant], are from the kawaii.

General discussion

This study showed that the features of consonants associated with kawaii in Japanese are [labial], [high frequency], and [sonorant]. The motivations for the three features are briefly discussed below. The feature [labial] may be linked to a pouting gesture, that is, a gesture made using both lips can induce Japanese people to feel kawaii (Kumagai, 2020). The feature [labial] may also be linked to the image of babies, in that bilabial consonants are more frequent in the earlier phases of language acquisition (Kumagai and Kawahara, 2020). Thus, it can be said that consonants with feature [labial] can evoke the image of babies, at least in Japanese. The feature [high frequency] may stem from quickness, as the frequency code hypothesis states that high-frequency sounds are associated with smallness (Ohala, 1984, 1994). The feature [sonorant] may be connected to a number of observations on sound symbolic effects in names and shapes. Sonorants are better suited for female names or bulleted shapes (Shinohara and Kawahara, 2013; Asano et al., 2015). To summarise, the factors associated with kawaii may include pouting gesture, babyishness, smallness, femininity, and roundness. It is interesting that some of these factors overlap with the factors noted by Kinsella (1995) for cute characters. She noted that ‘The essential anatomy of a cute cartoon character consists in its being small, soft, infantile, mammalian, round, without bodily appendages (e.g., arms), without bodily orifices (e.g., mouths), non-sexual, mute, insecure, helpless or bewildered’. (p. 226; emphasis mine). Taking the fact into consideration that Kinsella (1995) was published more than 25 years ago, it is inferred that something that evokes kawaii in the minds of Japanese speakers has not changed for at least 25 years.

As noted in the introduction section, it is well known that sound symbolism plays an important role in ; Klink and Wu, 2014). The exploration of what consonants are better suited for kawaii names is an interesting topic. Based on the above discussion, it is inferred that the consonants that induce the feeling of kawaii among Japanese people include /p/, /?/, and /m/, as the first consonant /p/ is specified with [labial] and [high frequency], the second consonant /?/ with [sonorant], and the latinfeels datum third consonant /m/ with [labial] and [sonorant]. Based on his kawaii judgment experiment with Japanese speakers, Kumagai (2019) discusses whether /m/, in addition to /p/, is another consonant expressive of kawaii in Japanese, since his study results demonstrated that fewest differences existed regarding average scores between nonce words with /p/ and those with /m/. In Japanese words or character names that seem to be associated with kawaii, we find examples that contain /p/, /?/, or /m/. For example, a mimetic word, or onomatopoeia, purupuru, is used to express something soft or something that trembles like jelly. We also find a cute character name pomupomu purin ‘Pom Pom Purin’, created by Sanrio. Moreover, Kawahara (2019) reported that bilabial consonants and /?/ are often used in girls’ names in a popular Japanese anime PreCure, broadcast since 2004. It is expected that these consonants will prove applicable in naming anime characters or products that are characterised by kawaii.