An average score try 1.478 regarding the plosive reputation, step one.forty five from the fricative status, 1.707 on nose reputation, and you can step one.942 regarding liquids condition. A reduced section from inside the Table 3 summarises the results out of model of Set step 3. The fresh standard was the fresh fricative updates, and now we opposed the plosive compared to. fricative conditions, the fresh new nose vs. fricative conditions, plus the water vs. fricative standards. First, the essential difference between the newest plosive and you will fricative conditions wasn’t reputable, because the 95% CI of the coefficient estimate incorporated no [?0.06, 0.09]. Next, brand Island ensam kvinna new nasal compared to. fricative and you may liquid against. fricative comparisons revealed that all of the new coefficient rates was positive (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you will (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you may both of the brand new 95% CIs failed to tend to be zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you can [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and therefore indicating that nonce terms and conditions that have nasals and water was in fact judged are even more kawaii names than those with fricatives.
Conversation
The modern investigation indicated that (1) labial consonants are more likely to become in the kawaii than just coronal and dorsal consonants, (2) high-regularity consonants are more inclined to be from the kawaii than low-volume consonants, and (3) liquids /?/ and you can nose /n/ will become regarding the kawaii than simply fricative /z/ (and plosive /d/). These types of performance recommend that the spot-of-articulation ability associated with the kawaii is actually [labial], plus the regularity ability of kawaii was [high frequency]. The manner-of-articulation feature requires next conversation. Once the consonant showing the best mediocre score is actually liquids /?/, we can think that the manner-of-articulation function of the kawaii try [liquid]. not, since Bayesian research displayed, nasal /n/ is more probably be regarding the kawaii than just fricative /z/. For this reason, we are able to conclude you to definitely liquids and nasals, all of that are [sonorant], are regarding the kawaii.
General dialogue
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.