The typical score is 1.478 on the plosive status, step 1.forty five on fricative position, step one.707 regarding the nose status, and you can 1.942 throughout the drinking water position. A low section inside Desk step 3 summarises the results regarding model away from Put step 3. The fresh new baseline was new fricative condition, and we also compared the brand new plosive vs. fricative requirements, the brand new nose versus. fricative standards, and also the h2o against. fricative criteria. First, the essential difference between the brand new plosive and you can fricative criteria was not reputable, as the 95% CI from the coefficient imagine provided no [?0.06, 0.09]. Second, brand new nose compared to. fricative and water vs. fricative comparisons revealed that both of the fresh coefficient rates was in fact self-confident (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you can (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you may both of the 95% CIs don’t include zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and therefore recommending you to nonce words which have nasals and you can h2o was judged is a lot more kawaii brands than those that have fricatives.
Talk
The present day data showed that (1) labial consonants will getting of kawaii than coronal and you may dorsal consonants, (2) high-regularity consonants may be on the kawaii than low-volume consonants, and (3) water /?/ and nasal /n/ may getting associated with the kawaii than simply fricative /z/ (and you will plosive /d/). These types of overall performance advise that the area-of-articulation feature from the kawaii is actually [labial], as well as the regularity ability with the kawaii was [high frequency]. The way in which-of-articulation function requires then dialogue. Once the consonant demonstrating the best mediocre rating try drinking water /?/, we can assume that fashion-of-articulation ability associated with kawaii try [liquid]. But not, because Bayesian study shown, nose /n/ is more probably be with the kawaii than just fricative /z/. Hence, we are able to conclude you to liquids and nasals, both of which can be [sonorant], try on the kawaii.
General 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 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 kissbrides.com tryck pГҐ denna webbplats 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.
