Constructing Family in Disney Animated Films: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Coco, Encanto, and Mulan

This article examines the use of the term “family” in the screenplays of Disney animated films through the application of corpus linguistics methods. The Disney Family Screenplay Corpus (DFSC) comprises the English language scripts of Mulan (1998), Coco (2017), and Encanto (2021). The corpus was compiled in accordance with corpus design principles and then analyzed using AntConc software. Frequency analysis was employed to identify “family” as the keyword of interest, while concordance analysis was instrumental in revealing the recurring collocational patterns of the term across the three screenplays. It was found that “family” is not only a term that denotes kinship but also a discourse trigger that is associated with identity, collective memory, and cultural continuity. Although these concepts appear to dominate the interpretation of the corpus, each screenplay reflects a distinct cultural perspective that emphasizes different value systems and family structures. The concordance analysis further revealed that the semantic decoding of “family” was made possible due to the contextual usage of the word. More specifically, the analysis of fictional dialogue through corpus linguistic methods shows that screenplay corpora can contribute unique epistemological insights into the investigation of culture-specific concepts. Consequently, the research outcomes highlight the value of specialized corpora for discourse-oriented studies of language and culture in contemporary media.