イギリス英語圏における家族像 : true と real で探る FAMILY カテゴリーの成立条件

This study aims to show how the conceptual category of FAMILY has been　adjusted in British English user's minds, and to clarify the critical features that work to　form the FAMILY category in the culture of British English. Two English words of true and real often claim that something is a ‘true’ or ‘real’ member of a category. This means that these two words work to confirm the nature of the category. True and real represent the two kinds of dynamic forces which form categories in the cognitive process of categorization: “centripetal force,” which pulls something toward the center of a category, and “distinguishing force,” which puts something inside the boundary of a category. When a person notices that something has the “salient” feature as a member of some category, the “centripetal force” begins to work. In her or his mind, this force pulls it toward the center of the category, often as its prototypical member. When a person tries to set some “standard” to be a member of some category and acknowledges that something meets the “standard,” the “distinguishing force” begins to work. In her or his mind, this force puts it inside the boundary of the category as its member. These classified members need not to be prototypes of the category, though they can be ones. This paper collects and examines combinatory expressions of true or real and family in their contexts from the UK texts in the corpus of WordBanksOnline. Close examination will reveal the cognitive process of FAMILY categorization, and “salient” features and “standard” features to be a family in the culture of British English.