Figure 3 signifies the container plots to possess Set step 3

The average score is step 1.478 on plosive status, step one.forty five on fricative reputation, 1.707 about nasal position, and you will step one.942 regarding drinking water updates varfГ¶r vill Singaporean kvinnor att amerikanska mГ¤n ska gifta sig. The lowest section inside Table 3 summarises the outcome out of modeling from Put 3. The new baseline are the fresh fricative status, and we also compared the brand new plosive vs. fricative conditions, the brand new nasal versus. fricative criteria, while the liquid versus. fricative requirements. Earliest, the essential difference between the fresh plosive and you can fricative requirements wasn’t reliable, as 95% CI of this coefficient estimate incorporated zero [?0.06, 0.09]. 2nd, the newest nose versus. fricative and you may drinking water compared to. fricative comparisons showed that each of brand new coefficient estimates was in fact confident (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you will (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you can both of the 95% CIs didn’t include zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you will [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and so indicating you to definitely nonce terminology having nasals and you will drinking water was evaluated becoming a whole lot more kawaii names than others having fricatives.

Discussion

The modern analysis showed that (1) labial consonants may be for the kawaii than just coronal and you may dorsal consonants, (2) high-volume consonants will become of the kawaii than low-regularity consonants, and you will (3) h2o /?/ and you will nose /n/ are more likely to getting on the kawaii than fricative /z/ (and plosive /d/). These show suggest that the spot-of-articulation ability from the kawaii are [labial], therefore the regularity function from the kawaii is [high-frequency]. The manner-of-articulation function need subsequent dialogue. Since the consonant showing the highest average score are liquids /?/, we can presume that the style-of-articulation element associated with the kawaii are [liquid]. Although not, just like the Bayesian studies demonstrated, nasal /n/ is more apt to be in the kawaii than just fricative /z/. Ergo, we could finish you to h2o and you can nasals, both of that are [sonorant], are 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 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 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.