Complementary Distribution

3 Key excerpts on "Complementary Distribution"

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  eBook - ePub

  Applied English Phonology

  • Mehmet Yavas(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Essentially, we look at the immediately preceding and immediately following environments, because these are the primary sources of contextual conditioning for changes. For example, if we cannot find an exact minimal pair to show the contrast between [ʃ] and [ʒ] in English, we can use the words vision [vɪʒәn] and mission [mɪʃәn], or illusion [әluʒәn] and solution [sәluʃәn]. Although these pairs do not constitute minimal pairs (because the difference is not solely in the suspicious pair of sounds, [ʃ] and [ʒ], but also related to others), the relevant preceding and following environments of the suspicious pairs of sounds are kept identical. Similarly, pairs such as lethargy [l ε θɚdʒi] and leather [l ε ðɚ] for [θ] and [ð], and lesion [liʒәn] and heathen [hiðәn], for [ʒ] and [ð], would serve as near‐minimal pairs. As stated above, these are pairs which would be minimal except for some evidently irrelevant differences. Thus, we can answer the question “Do the two sounds occur in the same/similar environment?” affirmatively and conclude that the pairs of sounds considered above are in contrast and belong to two separate phonemes. 2.2.2 Complementary Distribution The other distributional possibility, Complementary Distribution, presents the diametrically opposing picture. Here we never find the two or more sounds in the same environment. Stating it simply, we can say that two sounds are in Complementary Distribution if /X/ never appears in any of the phonetic environments in which /Y/ occurs. Having said that, we can now go back to some of the examples we gave at the beginning of the chapter and re‐examine them. The first one concerns the dental and alveolar nasal sounds [ ] and [n]. In English, the distribution of these two sounds is such that they never appear in the same environment (that is, they are mutually exclusive). We find the dental only before /θ/ or /ð/, as in tenth [t ε θ], in the game [i ðә …], where the other one never appears

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  eBook - ePub

  A. J. Greimas and the Nature of Meaning

  Linguistics, Semiotics and Discourse Theory

  • Ronald Schleifer(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  ‘Distributional analysis,’ Holenstein writes, ‘rests on the remarkable observation that in every language strict laws govern the succession of phonemes.’ (1976: 71) Thus when two sounds never appear together in any particular context but rather always alternate in every particular context — that is, when they manifest a ‘Complementary Distribution’ — they are considered varients of the same phoneme, while two sounds that alternate in some but not all contexts are considered different phonemes. Distributional analysis is the exact opposite of a method the Prague School developed which came to be called the ‘commutation test.’ In this test ‘they tried to find… word-pairs, of such a sort that the members of each pair were semantically different but phonically identical except for one single phonic difference. If such word-pairs could indeed be found, they were regarded as clear evidence for the different phonemic evaluation of the concerned phonic qualities… the Bloomfieldian group never accepted the “commutation test” as a basic tool of analysis, in full conformity with its refusal of any recourse to semantic criteria in phonology and linguistics in general.’ (Vachek 1966: 53) Distributional analysis seeks identity in repetition, while commutation seeks differences in repetition: while distributional analysis reduces language to ‘simple’ phenomena, commutation maintains the doubleness of language, what Benveniste calls the ‘duality of sound and sense’ (1971: 35) and Greimas calls ‘the semantic investment’ (55: 203). Yet the crossing of structuralism and semantics — the analysis of signification in terms of ‘the form of the content’ — paradoxically requires that Greimas use both commutation and distributional analysis in his semantic analysis. Distributional analysis is necessary to reduce a semantic inventory and denominate it by a single term while commutation assures the maintenance of ‘the frame of a given corpus’ so reduced (55: 191)

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  Complementarity Between Lexis and Grammar in the System of Person

  A Systemic Typological Approach

  • Pin Wang(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  This chapter is intended to provide an account for the complementarity between lexis and grammar in their construal of meaning in relation to the system of person. The first section addresses SFL’s long-standing position on complementari-ties in language and in ways of linguistic analysis. The second section is dedicated specifically to the complementarity between lexis and grammar, and the third section recalls the manifestation of this type of complementarity with respect to the person system. The fourth section provides a typological account from the SFL perspective and examines how the movement of person marking forms along the lexis-grammar cline across languages reflects the diversified resources and motifs in the construal of the same meaning, i.e. meaning related to the person system.

  5.1 An overview of complementarity in SFL

  5.1.1 The term “complementarity”

  Complementarity is a relationship in which two or more things enhance or emphasize each other’s qualities or properties and together form a balanced entirety. The term “complementary” is widely used in scientific literature. For example, in mathematics, two angles are said to be complementary if they sum up to 90 degrees; “complementary colors” refers to pairs of colors that are of opposite hue and give white when combined, such as red and green.

  What is particularly relevant to complementarity in SFL is the wave-particle duality in quantum theory in physics, where light or radiation has the behavior of either waves or particles, depending on the circumstances of the experiment. Such a duality gives rise to the principle of complementarity, which suggests that some objects have dual properties that appear to be contradictory because normally the two sides are mutually exclusive; however, both of them are possible. It is usually not likely that one will observe both at the same time though they exist simultaneously. For one single phenomenon, it can be measured either way, but not at the same time, and the same measurement cannot apply to both.

  5.1.2 Complementarities in language

  Apart from the natural sciences, the principle of complementarities is found in the study of language, too. For example, the noun language can be seen as either a mass noun or a count noun, seemingly contradictory but both feasible. When it is used as a mass noun, e.g. complementarities in language , here language refers to the abstract semiotic system, without any preceding determiner or plurality ending. When it is used to mean a particular kind of language, e.g. Chinese is a difficult language

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