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This article investigates the strength and the shortcomings of the notion of family resemblance features in the description of the linguistic representation of spatial relationships. The relationship bearer/burden (B/b) conveyed in French by x est sur y and the relationship of suspension (S) conveyed by x pend a y are taken as examples. The relationships B/b and S will be described by traits or values determining how the bearer support the burden (dimension W); the type of contact between the bearer and the burden (dimension C); and the relative positions of the bearer and the burden in the vertical axis (dimension H). Each situation in the world described by x est sur y or x pend a y may be represented by a combinations of three values in dimensions W, C and H. I call the sets of these combinations the family resemblance B/b and the family resemblance S. According to a first interpretation of these family resemblances, the sets of combinations of family resemblances B/b and S might be delineated by considering their values in isolation, independently of the global situations they characterize. In order to reach this goal, probabilistic approaches attribute individual category validity to values. If this analytical interpretation of family resemblances were true, family resemblances might be considered as the last shelter for the semantic features of structuralist linguistics. This article demonstrates the shortcomings of the analytical interpretation of family resemblances: even though, linguistically, they allow for an exhaustive description of the expressions etre sur and pendre a , it is unlikely that, psychologically, categories B/b and S cannot be completely delimitated by an additive summation of the values in family resemblances B/b and S. According to a second interpretation of family resemblances B/b and S, speakers pay attention to the overall similarity of situations. In this global interpretation of family resemblances, values are treated in a non-independent way. This knowledge is solidly anchored in the experience of the world.

Family resemblances and the structure of spatial relationships