linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, complementary distribution (as distinct from

contrastive distribution Contrastive may refer to one of several concepts in linguistics: *Contrast (linguistics) *Contrastive linguistics *Contrastive distribution *Contrastive analysis *Contrastive rhetoric *Contrastive focus reduplication *Contrastive stress *Contrastiv ...

and

free variation In linguistics, free variation is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. Sociolinguists argue that describing such ...

) is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other element is found in a non-intersecting (complementary) set of environments. The term often indicates that two superficially-different elements are the same linguistic unit at a deeper level, though more than two elements can be in complementary distribution with one another.

In phonology

Complementary distribution is the distribution of phones in their respective phonetic environments in which one phone never appears in the same phonetic context as the other. When two variants are in complementary distribution, one can predict when each will occur because one can simply look at the environment in which the allophone is occurring. Complementary distribution is commonly applied to

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

in which similar phones in complementary distribution are usually

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...

s of the same phoneme. For instance, in English, and are allophones of the

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

because they occur in complementary distribution. always occurs when it is the

syllable onset A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

and, most likely, when followed by a stressed

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

(as in the word ''pin''). occurs in all other situations (as in the word ''spin'', or in ''sipping'''). There are cases of elements being in complementary distribution but not being considered allophones. For example, English and are in complementary distribution: occurs only at the beginning of a syllable and only at the end. However, because they have so little in common in phonetic terms, they are still considered separate phonemes.''An Introduction to Language'' by Victoria Fromkin

In morphology

The concept of complementary distribution is applied in the analysis of word forms ( morphology). Two different word forms (

allomorph In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or in other words, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term ''allomorph'' describes the realization of phonological variatio ...

s) can actually be different "faces" of one and the same word (

morpheme A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...

). An example is the English indefinite articles ''a'' and ''an''. The usages ''an aardvark'' and ''a bear'' are grammatical, but the usages ''*a aardvark'' and ''*an bear'' are ungrammatical (as is marked with "*" in linguistics). :The form ''an'' is used before a word that begins with a vowel sound. :That can be notated as "__ V". :The form ''a'' is used before a word beginning with a consonant sound. :That can be notated as "__ C". :The "distribution" (usage according to environments) of the forms ''an'' and ''a'' is "complementary" because of three factors: :(1) ''an'' is used if ''a'' is not used; :(2) ''a'' is used if ''an'' is not used; :(3) both environments together cover every legitimate potential environment for the word. The forms ''a'' and ''an'' encompass every environment in which the English indefinite article is used, i.e. there are two different "forms" of the same "word" instead of two different words.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Complementary Distribution Phonology ru:Дистрибуция#Типы дистрибуции

In phonology

In morphology

See also

References