The common score are 1.478 on plosive position, 1.45 on the fricative updates, 1.707 about nasal position, and you may step one.942 in the water position. A low area into the Table step three summarises the results out of modeling regarding Set step three. The newest baseline was brand new fricative reputation, and we opposed the plosive against. fricative criteria, brand new nasal against. fricative requirements, and the drinking water against. fricative criteria. Basic, the essential difference between the newest plosive and you can fricative standards was not credible, just like the 95% CI in the coefficient estimate integrated zero [?0.06, 0.09]. 2nd, the nose compared to. fricative and you may h2o against. fricative comparisons indicated that each of the latest coefficient estimates were confident (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you can (? = 0.3) (liquid) and all of the 95% CIs did not is no ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you will [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), thereby indicating you to definitely nonce terms and conditions having nasals and you will liquids was in fact judged are much more kawaii names than others that have fricatives.
The present day studies revealed that (1) labial consonants will become associated with kawaii than simply coronal and you will dorsal consonants, (2) high-volume consonants are more inclined to become from the kawaii than just low-volume consonants, and you can (3) water /?/ and you can nasal /n/ are more likely to feel with the kawaii than just fricative /z/ (and you may plosive /d/).
These abilities recommend that the spot-of-articulation element on the kawaii is actually [labial], and the regularity ability associated with the kawaii try [high-frequency]. The way-of-articulation ability means further dialogue. As consonant showing the best average rating are liquids /?/, we can think your trends-of-articulation function for the kawaii are [liquid]. Although not, as the Bayesian analysis showed, nasal /n/ is much more more likely associated with kawaii than fricative /z/. Ergo, we could finish that h2o and nasals, each of which are [sonorant], try of this kawaii.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 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 Ukraina brudar 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.
