departmental bulletin paper

Departmental Bulletin Paper

Text

大阪大学大学院人間科学研究科紀要. 2024, 50, p. 49-67

Japanese

Text

2024-03-22

The Japanese word “kawaii,” which roughly means cute, lovely, and adorable in English, is ubiquitous in Japan. It is used not only as a standalone adjective but also in compound adjectives, which often combine conflicting elements, such as “kimo-kawaii” (creepy-cute) and “dasakawaii” (uncool-cute). In this study, we explored newspaper article databases to investigate when “kawaii”-based compound words first appeared in the literature and how they have evolved. Until the late 1970s, “kawaii” was mainly used to describe vulnerable and innocent beings and things, such as children, animals, and fancy goods. However, in the 1980s, the concept rapidly expanded to encompass even the negative and undesirable aspects of human beings and things. In the late 1990s, compound words such as “kimo-kawaii” and “dasa-kawaii” appeared in newspapers.Since approximately 2005, the variety of compound words has widened to include descriptions of women’s fashion and appearance styles, such as “otona-kawaii” (adult-cute) and “ero-kawaii” (sexy-cute). A survey on the frequency of experiencing the feelings expressed by various types of “kawaii” compound words revealed that the compound words can be organized along two axes, pleasant–unpleasant and external–internal, and divided into three groups—external kawaii, internal kawaii, and kawaii with unpleasant elements.

10.18910/94725

94725

「かわいい」の複合語に関する小史

大阪大学大学院人間科学研究科

Japanese

2024-03-22

大阪大学大学院人間科学研究科紀要

50

49

67

https://hdl.handle.net/11094/94725

10.18910/94725

https://doi.org/10.18910/94725