distribution (n.)

A general term used in LINGUISTICS to refer to the total set of linguistic CONTEXTS, or ENVIRONMENTS, in which a UNIT (such as a PHONEME, a MORPHEME or a WORD) can occur. Every linguistic unit, it is said, has a characteristic distribution. A distributional analysis would plot the places in larger linguistic units where smaller units occur, such as the distribution of phonemes within a SYLLABLE or word, or of words within a SENTENCE. Distributional ideas were originally developed in PHONOLOGY, but were later extended to other linguistic units. In some approaches, the notion of distribution became a major explanatory principle, being seen as a possible way of grouping sounds into phonemes without reference to the meaning or grammatical properties of the words in which they appear – or even to the PHONETIC similarities existing between them. On this basis, for instance, [h] and  in English might be considered members of the same phoneme, because they never share the same set of environments. In phonemic phonology, the most important continuing use of the term is in the phrase complementary distribution, which refers to the status of related sounds (or ALLOPHONES) when they are found in mutually exclusive environments, as in the use of a DENTAL v. an ALVEOLAR allophone of /t/ in English, e.g. eight v. eighth. (In GENERATIVE phonology, on the other hand, distributional statements of this kind are handled by a formulation in terms of phonological RULES.)