10 Mar Contour step three stands for the package plots to have Place 3
The common rating is actually step one.478 on plosive status, step 1.forty-five in the fricative condition, step 1.707 from the nose condition, and you may step one.942 regarding the h2o reputation. A minimal point within the Desk 3 summarises the outcome out of modeling out-of Set step 3. The baseline try the fresh fricative position, so we compared the newest plosive versus. fricative conditions, this new nose against. fricative requirements, additionally the h2o vs. fricative conditions. Earliest, the difference between brand new plosive and you may fricative requirements wasn’t reliable, since 95% CI for the coefficient estimate provided zero [?0.06, 0.09]. 2nd, the brand new nose versus. fricative and you may water against. fricative reviews showed that both of new coefficient quotes had been self-confident (? = 0.16) (nasal) and you may (? = 0.3) (liquid) and you will both of the new 95% CIs didn’t were zero ([0.09, 0.24] (nasal) and [0.23, 0.38] (liquid)), and therefore recommending you to nonce words having nasals and you can drinking water was basically judged as a great deal more kawaii labels compared to those which have fricatives.
Talk
The current studies revealed that (1) labial consonants may feel regarding the kawaii than simply coronal and you may dorsal consonants, (2) high-volume consonants will getting from the kawaii than simply low-frequency consonants, and you can (3) h2o /?/ and you will nose /n/ will feel for the kawaii than fricative /z/ (and you will plosive /d/). Such abilities advise that the area-of-articulation feature regarding the kawaii are [labial], plus the regularity feature of kawaii is actually [high-frequency]. The way-of-articulation ability means subsequent talk. Just like the consonant showing the best mediocre rating is h2o /?/, we can think that the styles-of-articulation element associated with kawaii was [liquid]. not, since Bayesian analysis presented, nose /n/ is more apt to be in the kawaii than fricative /z/. Therefore, we can stop you to water and you may nasals, all of which are [sonorant], is actually associated with 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 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 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, https://kissbrides.com/sv/vietnamcupid-recension/ 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.
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