The average get are 1.478 on the plosive standing, step one.forty-five in the fricative standing, 1.707 on nasal condition, and you may 1.942 regarding the water standing. A minimal area in Desk 3 summarises the outcomes off modeling out-of Lay 3. The fresh new baseline is actually the fresh fricative condition, and in addition we compared brand new plosive vs. fricative criteria, the latest nasal versus. fricative criteria, and the liquids versus. fricative criteria. Basic, the essential difference between this new plosive and you will fricative standards was not legitimate, because 95% CI of coefficient imagine included no [?0.06, 0.09]. 2nd, this new nasal compared to. fricative and you will drinking water compared to. fricative contrasting showed that both of brand new coefficient estimates have been positive (? = 0.16) (nasal) and (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you will each of the fresh new 95% CIs don’t become no ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you will [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), thereby suggesting you to nonce terms having nasals and you may liquid was indeed judged to be alot more kawaii names as opposed to those having fricatives.
Dialogue
The present day studies indicated that (1) labial consonants will end up being for the kawaii than coronal and you may dorsal consonants, (2) high-frequency consonants are more inclined to be with the kawaii than just low-volume consonants, and (3) liquids /?/ and you may nose /n/ are more likely to getting of the kawaii than simply fricative /z/ (and you will plosive /d/). This type of results recommend that the place-of-articulation ability with the kawaii are [labial], and regularity ability on the kawaii was [high frequency]. The way-of-articulation ability needs next conversation. Due to the fact consonant indicating the highest average get is actually water /?/, we can presume that the manner-of-articulation ability of this kawaii are [liquid]. Although not, because Bayesian studies displayed, nasal /n/ is more likely to be with the kawaii than simply fricative /z/. Thus, we are able to conclude one to liquids and you will nasals, each of which can be [sonorant], are in 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 hur man trГ¤ffar en attraktiv kvinna 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 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.