Sound-symbolic Effects of Voiced Obstruents and Mora Counts on Monster Names in Digital Monster and Monster Hunter and on the Spell Names in Final Fantasy

抄録

The current paper shows three case studies of sound symbolism in fictional names featured in popular Japanese computer games: Digital Monster, Monster Hunter, and Final Fantasy. First, we show positive correlations between evolutionary stages and the number of voiced obstruents and the number of morae in Digital Monster. This replicates the results of the sound-symbolic analysis of Pokémon names conducted by Kawahara et al. (2018a). Second, we show that only the effect of the morae is positively associated with the size (height) of the monsters in Monster Hunter. Third, we reveal a positive correlation between the spell levels in Final Fantasy and the number of voiced obstruents, but not between the spell levels and the number of morae.