Contrastive distribution

Contrastive distribution in linguistics, as opposed to complementary distribution or free variation, is the relationship between two different elements, where both elements are found in the same environment with a change in meaning.

Phonology

In phonology, two sounds of a language are said to be in contrastive distribution if replacing one with the other in the same phonological environment results in a change in meaning. If a sound is in contrastive distribution, it is considered a phoneme in that language.

For example, in English, the sounds [p] and [b] can both occur word-initially, as in the words pat and bat (minimal pairs), which are distinct morphemes. Therefore, [p] and [b] are in contrastive distribution, and thus they are phonemes of English.

Note that two sounds which are in contrastive distribution in one language can be in complementary distribution or free variation in another. These sounds occur in English, as in the word team [tʰiːm] and steam [stiːm], but their occurrence is purely dependent upon phonological context. Therefore, in English, [tʰ] and [t] are not in contrastive distribution, but rather complementary distribution.

Morphology

In morphology, two morphemes are in contrastive distribution if they occur in the same environment, but have different meanings.

For example, in Korean, noun phrases are followed by one of various markers that indicate syntactic role: /-ka/, /-i/, /-(l)ul/, etc. /-ka/ and /-i/ are in complementary distribution: they are both used to indicate nominative case, and their occurrence is conditioned by the final sound of the preceding noun. If the noun ends in a consonant, /-i/ occurs, otherwise, /-ka/. /-(l)ul/, on the other hand, occurs in the same position as /-i/ or /-ka/, and is also conditioned by the immediately previous sound, but indicates accusative case. Therefore, /-(l)ul/ and the set {/-i/, /-ka/} are in contrastive distribution.

Syntax

In syntax, the requirements are similar. An example comes from English, in which the expression of the indicative versus subjunctive mood is contrastive.

(1) If I am a rich man, then I have a lot of money.
(2) If I were a rich man, then I would have a lot of money.

The change from non-past 1st person singular indicative am to the subjunctive were results in a change in the grammatical mood of the sentence.

See also

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