The common rating was 1.478 on the plosive reputation, 1.45 from the fricative position, 1.707 from the nose standing, and you may step one.942 in the h2o updates. A minimal point during the Table 3 summarises the results from modeling of Put step 3. The newest baseline is actually brand new fricative updates, and now we opposed the newest plosive compared to. fricative standards, brand new nasal against. fricative criteria, therefore the h2o against. fricative requirements. First, the essential difference between the fresh plosive and you may fricative requirements wasn’t reliable, because the 95% CI regarding the coefficient imagine provided zero [?0.06, 0.09]. Second, the brand new nasal versus. fricative and liquid versus. fricative reviews revealed that both of the newest coefficient prices was indeed confident (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you will (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you will each of the 95% CIs did not become no ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you can [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and so indicating that nonce terminology having nasals and you can liquids was in fact evaluated as way more kawaii brands than others having fricatives.
Talk
The current investigation revealed that (1) labial consonants are more likely to end up being from the kawaii than coronal and you will dorsal consonants, (2) high-regularity consonants will be from the kawaii than simply low-regularity consonants, and you may (3) drinking water /?/ and nose /n/ are more inclined to getting from the kawaii than just fricative /z/ (and you can plosive /d/). This type of show advise that the spot-of-articulation element of the kawaii is actually [labial], as well as the volume element from the kawaii was [high frequency]. The manner-of-articulation element need then talk. Since the consonant demonstrating the highest average rating try water /?/, we could assume that fashion-of-articulation element for the kawaii is [liquid]. Yet not, because the Bayesian investigation exhibited, nose /n/ is far more likely to be associated with the kawaii than just fricative /z/. Thus, we are able to end that liquid and you can nasals, both of which are [sonorant], are regarding the kawaii.
Standard 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 https://worldbrides.org/sv/filter/island-ensamstaende-kvinnor/, 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 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.