An Examination of the Relationship between the Attributes of Male Characters and the Patterns of Personal Pronoun Use in Otome Games

Through Correspondence Analysis and Comparison with Women's Fiction

Abstract

There are many personal pronouns in Japanese, and we use them in our daily lives depending on our position and relationship with others. How characters in games use personal pronouns is also determined by the various attributes that each character possesses. This study examines the correlation between the two in otome games released between 2017 and 2021. The study used correspondence analysis to examine the attributes of the main male characters and the patterns of personal pronouns they used, based on a crosstabulation table created from data for approximately 500 characters. Comparing the results with those for characters in women's novels published during the same period, we found that there were significantly more personal pronouns used in otome games than in novels, and that personal pronouns with the same sound but different kanji and kana spellings were independently influenced by character attributes.