The common get are step 1.478 throughout the plosive updates, step one.forty-five from the fricative updates, step 1.707 regarding nose reputation, and step one.942 regarding drinking water condition. A decreased section inside Desk step three summarises the outcome from modeling regarding Put 3. Brand new baseline was the new fricative condition, therefore we opposed the new plosive versus. fricative conditions, the brand new nose compared to. fricative conditions, while the liquids against. fricative standards. Basic, the essential difference between the brand new plosive and fricative requirements was not credible, since the 95% CI of coefficient guess provided zero [?0.06, 0.09]. 2nd, the latest nose compared to. fricative and you can drinking water vs. fricative reviews showed that both of the fresh new coefficient rates have been positive (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you may (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you may both of new 95% CIs don’t include no ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), thereby indicating one nonce terms that have nasals and liquids had been judged to get way more kawaii brands than others with fricatives.
Dialogue
The current studies revealed that (1) labial consonants are more likely to end up being regarding the kawaii than simply coronal and you can dorsal consonants, (2) high-regularity consonants may feel of kawaii than simply low-frequency consonants, and you may (3) h2o /?/ and you may nasal /n/ will become of the kawaii than simply fricative /z/ (and you can plosive /d/). These abilities suggest that the spot-of-articulation feature regarding the kawaii was [labial], and the volume feature with the kawaii is [high-frequency]. The way in which-of-articulation element requires subsequent discussion. Due to the fact consonant appearing the greatest mediocre rating is actually liquids /?/, we are able to assume your manner-of-articulation ability in the kawaii are [liquid]. Although not, as Bayesian study shown, nose /n/ is much more apt to be regarding the kawaii than simply fricative /z/. Therefore, we could ending one water and you may nasals, each of being [sonorant], is actually of this 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 Sverige brudar byrГҐ 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 briefness, 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 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.