The average rating is actually 1.478 about plosive standing, step 1.forty five from the fricative status, step 1.707 on the nasal reputation, and 1.942 on liquid position. A reduced section from inside the Desk step 3 summarises the outcomes of modeling out-of Lay step three. This new standard is the fresh fricative position, and now we opposed the brand new plosive compared to. fricative conditions, the nose against. fricative criteria, therefore the liquids vs. fricative conditions. First, the difference between the brand new plosive and you may fricative requirements was not reputable, while the 95% CI of the coefficient guess incorporated no [?0.06, 0.09]. Second, the brand new nasal against. fricative and you will drinking water versus. fricative contrasting indicated that all of the newest coefficient rates was positive (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you can (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you may all of the fresh 95% CIs failed to were no ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you may [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), thereby indicating you to definitely nonce terms which have nasals and you can water was indeed judged getting alot more kawaii labels compared to those with fricatives.

Discussion

The current analysis showed that (1) labial consonants are more inclined to getting associated with kawaii than simply coronal and dorsal consonants, (2) high-regularity consonants are more likely to feel on the kawaii than low-frequency consonants, and you may (3) h2o /?/ and nasal /n/ will end up being of the kawaii than fricative /z/ (and you will plosive /d/). Such show advise that the area-of-articulation element with the kawaii was [labial], while the frequency function of the kawaii is [high frequency]. The way-of-articulation element needs next discussion. As the consonant indicating the best mediocre rating is actually liquid /?/, we are able to presume your style-of-articulation ability associated with the kawaii try [liquid]. Although not, since the Bayesian research displayed, nose /n/ is more probably be for the kawaii than fricative /z/. Thus, we could stop one water and nasals, all of which can be [sonorant], is regarding the kawaii.

General conversation

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 trГ¤ffa singel Norsk damer 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.