Types of Distribution

Contrastive Non-contrastive Complimentary

distribution distribution distribution

	Contrastive	Non-contrastive	Complimentary
Environment	Identical	Identical	Different
Meaning	Different	Identical	Identical
Example	Worked – working	Learned – learnt	Boys – men – mice – oxen

different morphemes free variants allomorphs

Fig. 11

The morphs are in contrastive distribution if their environments are identical and their meanings are different, such morphs constitute different morphemes.

The morphs are in non-contrastive distribution if their environments and meanings are identical; such morphs constitute “'free variants” of the same morpheme.

The morphs are in complementary if their environments are different and their meanings are identical; such morphs are termed “allo-morphs”.

There exist five criteria of classifying morphemes (Fig. 12). According to the classification suggested by Descriptive Linguistics there are the following “distributional morpheme types”.

On the basis of the degree of self-dependence, “free” morphemes and “bound” morphemes are distinguished. Bound morphemes cannot form words by themselves, they are identified only as component segmental parts of words (Fig. 13).

Degree of

self-dependence

Formal Grammatical presentation alternations

Linear characteristics Segmental relation

Fig. 12

Fig. 13

On the basis of formal presentation, “overt” morphemes and “covert” morphemes are distinguished (Fig. 14). Overt morphemes are explicit morphemes building up words. The covert morpheme is identified as a contrastive absence of morpheme expressing a certain function. The notion of covert morpheme coincides with the notion of zero morpheme.

Fig. 14

On the basis of grammatical alternation, “additive” morphemes and “replacive” morphemes are distinguished. Additive morphemes are outer grammatical suffixes. The root phonemes of grammatical interchange are considered as replacive morphemes, since they replace one another in the paradigmatic forms (Fig. 15).

Fig. 15

On the basis of linear characteristic, “continuous” morphemes and "discontinuous" morphemes are distinguished (Fig. 16).

The discontinuous morpheme is a two-element grammatical unit which is identified in the analytical grammatical form comprising an auxiliary word and a grammatical suffix.

The continuous morpheme is a common uninterruptedly expressed grammatical unit.

Fig. 16

On the basis of segmental relation, “segmental” morphemes and “supra-segmental” morphemes are distinguished (Fig. 17). Supra-segmental morphemes are intonation contours, accents, pauses.

Fig. 17