To examine the communication mechanism of emotional valence in the written language, three experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to write sentences using appropriate script types (Kanji, Hiragana or Katakana) to communicate one of the three nuances (strict, light and modern) properly. Results showed that Kanji was used predominantly in the sentences with strict nuance than in the sentences with light or modern nuance, and that Hiragana was selected more in the sentences with light nuance. Katakana was used more in the sentences with modern nuance.
Experiment 2-1 examined if not only the script type but also the font type contribute to communicate emotional valence in the written language. The results by correspondent and cluster analyses indicated that different font types also had distinctive emotional meanings. In Experiment 2-2, subjects were asked to choose the appropriate font-script type that can express the image of a famous person well. Results showed the effects of compatibility between the mental representation of famous person and emotional-semantic images of the font and / or script types.
Based on these results, the possibility that the emotional information can be communicated by the mechanism of choosing font and / or script types in written language as well as prosody in spoken language was discussed.
