The typical rating are step 1.478 in the plosive standing, 1.forty five throughout the fricative position, step one.707 from the nose updates, and step one.942 about water updates. A reduced part from inside the Table step 3 summarises the outcome from modeling regarding Put step 3. New baseline is actually the brand new fricative position, and we also opposed this new plosive versus. fricative criteria, the new nasal compared to. fricative criteria, therefore the water compared to. fricative criteria. Earliest, the difference between the newest plosive and fricative standards wasn’t reputable, since 95% CI associated with the coefficient https://kissbrides.com/sv/indiamatch-recension/ estimate incorporated zero [?0.06, 0.09]. Second, the new nose vs. fricative and you will liquids versus. fricative reviews indicated that both of the fresh new coefficient estimates was in fact self-confident (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you may (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you will each of the 95% CIs failed to include zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you will [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and thus indicating one nonce terms and conditions with nasals and liquids was basically judged to-be a lot more kawaii names as opposed to those that have fricatives.
Discussion
The present day studies revealed that (1) labial consonants are more likely to feel of kawaii than simply coronal and dorsal consonants, (2) high-volume consonants are more likely to feel from the kawaii than low-frequency consonants, and you will (3) liquid /?/ and you will nasal /n/ are more inclined to feel with the kawaii than fricative /z/ (and you may plosive /d/). These performance suggest that the spot-of-articulation element associated with kawaii was [labial], while the volume element in the kawaii was [high-frequency]. The way in which-of-articulation ability need next dialogue. As the consonant exhibiting the best average score was liquid /?/, we can presume your fashion-of-articulation feature for the kawaii try [liquid]. However, because the Bayesian study showed, nasal /n/ is much more more likely associated with kawaii than fricative /z/. Thus, we can conclude you to water and you will nasals, all of which can be [sonorant], try from the kawaii.
General talk
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 shortness, 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 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.