An average rating was step one.478 on the plosive standing, 1.forty-five on fricative reputation, 1.707 in the nasal reputation, and you will step 1.942 regarding drinking water status. A low section into the Table step three summarises the outcomes out of model away from Place step three. The fresh baseline try new fricative condition, and we compared the fresh new plosive versus. fricative standards, the brand new nasal vs. fricative conditions, and liquids versus. fricative criteria. First, the essential difference between this new plosive and you may fricative conditions was not legitimate, while the 95% CI of this coefficient estimate included zero [?0.06, 0.09]. Next, the latest nose versus. fricative and you can drinking water vs. fricative evaluations showed that both of the latest coefficient quotes was positive (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you can (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you may both of the fresh new 95% CIs don’t is zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and therefore indicating that nonce terminology with nasals and water had been evaluated as even more kawaii names than others with fricatives.

Dialogue

The present day analysis showed that (1) labial consonants are more likely to getting with the kawaii than coronal and you will dorsal consonants, (2) high-regularity consonants may end up being associated with kawaii than just low-frequency consonants, and (3) drinking water /?/ and you will nasal /n/ are more inclined to end up being for the kawaii than just fricative /z/ (and you may plosive /d/). This type of results suggest that the place-of-articulation element associated with the kawaii are [labial], and also the volume function in the kawaii are [high frequency]. The way in which-of-articulation function needs further dialogue. Since the consonant showing the greatest mediocre rating is water /?/, we could assume your manner-of-articulation element associated with the kawaii try [liquid]. Although not, once the Bayesian research demonstrated, nasal /n/ is far more likely to be of the kawaii than fricative /z/. Hence, we are able to conclude you to h2o and nasals, each of that are [sonorant], was of the kawaii.

Standard 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 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 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 thaiflirting webbplats 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.