An average rating try step 1.478 about plosive condition, 1.forty five on fricative condition, 1.707 in the nasal standing, and you can step 1.942 on the h2o condition. A decreased area in the Desk 3 summarises the results from modeling off Put 3. Brand new standard is actually brand new fricative reputation, and in addition we compared new plosive compared to. fricative conditions, the fresh new nose versus. fricative requirements, and drinking water vs. fricative standards. First, the difference between this new plosive and you may fricative standards was not credible, once the 95% CI in the coefficient imagine included zero [?0.06, 0.09]. Next, the fresh nose versus. fricative and you will liquids against. fricative evaluations showed that both of the newest coefficient estimates was indeed positive (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you will (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you may all of the brand new 95% CIs did not https://kissbrides.com/sv/jamaicanska-brudar/ were zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and you can [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and so suggesting you to nonce words that have nasals and you may liquids was basically evaluated becoming a whole lot more kawaii labels as opposed to those that have fricatives.
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The modern data indicated that (1) labial consonants will be of this kawaii than coronal and you can dorsal consonants, (2) high-regularity consonants will end up being of kawaii than simply low-volume consonants, and (3) drinking water /?/ and you may nasal /n/ are more inclined to feel from the kawaii than just fricative /z/ (and you can plosive /d/). These types of efficiency suggest that the spot-of-articulation function in the kawaii try [labial], as well as the regularity feature associated with kawaii was [high-frequency]. The way in which-of-articulation ability demands after that dialogue. As the consonant demonstrating the best average score is actually liquid /?/, we can think that the trend-of-articulation feature associated with the kawaii is actually [liquid]. But not, given that Bayesian data shown, nasal /n/ is much more apt to be of the kawaii than fricative /z/. Thus, we could ending you to water and you may nasals, all of which happen to be [sonorant], try for the kawaii.
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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 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.