The average score was 1.478 in the plosive updates, step 1.45 in the fricative updates, step 1.707 regarding nasal standing, and you will step one.942 regarding the drinking water condition. A minimal section when you look at the Table step three summarises the results away from modelling regarding Lay step three. Brand new baseline was the new fricative status, therefore opposed the fresh new plosive against. fricative conditions, the fresh nose vs. fricative conditions, and the drinking water against. fricative standards. Earliest, the difference between the fresh plosive and fricative standards wasn’t reliable, because the 95% CI in the coefficient estimate integrated zero [?0.06, 0.09]. Next, the fresh new nose vs. fricative and you can liquids vs. fricative comparisons indicated that each of the brand new coefficient prices was basically positive (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you can (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you will both of the newest 95% CIs did not were zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you may [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and thus indicating you to definitely nonce terms having nasals and water had been evaluated to get a whole lot more kawaii labels compared to those having fricatives.
Talk
The current data showed that (1) labial consonants are more inclined to getting in the kawaii than just coronal and dorsal consonants, (2) high-regularity consonants are more likely to be in the kawaii than simply low-volume consonants, and you may (3) water /?/ and you will nasal /n/ are more likely to end up being on the kawaii than simply fricative /z/ (and plosive /d/). Such abilities recommend that the area-of-articulation element associated with the kawaii is actually [labial], additionally the frequency feature regarding the kawaii is actually [high-frequency]. The manner-of-articulation element need after that conversation. As the consonant indicating the highest average get are water /?/, we can think that the trend-of-articulation feature associated with kawaii is [liquid]. Yet not, because the Bayesian research displayed, nose /n/ is much more apt to be regarding the kawaii than just fricative /z/. Therefore, we could conclude that drinking water and you will nasals, all of being [sonorant], try of kawaii.
General dialogue
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 rounded 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 Spanish kvinnor fГ¶r Г¤ktenskap 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 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.
