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Mr.eleget Posted 15 years ago
Linguistics Studies

What is meant by....?

As I was reading in my applied linguistics booklet, I came across this statement:

Every linguistic unit has a characteristic distribution. Two or more units occurring in the same context are said to be distributionally equivalent

What is meant by "to be distributionally equivalent" ?

Does it have something to do with syntagmatic dimension?

Please, I need an example.

Thank you in advance
  

Top answer

Every linguistic unit has a characteristic distribution. -- It just means that the two words or phrases (units) appear in the same sentence or the same sort of sentence, I think. -- No, I don't think so.

— Mister Micawber

  • Every linguistic unit has a characteristic distribution.
  • -- It just means that the two words or phrases (units) appear in the same sentence or the same sort of sentence, I think.
  • -- No, I don't think so.
  • ' are liable to co-occur in many utterances or the same kinds of utterances, so they would be distributionally equivalent.
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7 Answers
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Every linguistic unit has a characteristic distribution. Two or more units occurring in the same context are said to be distributionally equivalent What is meant by "to be distributionally equivalent"?-- It just means that the two words or phrases (units) appear in the same sentence or the same sort of sentence, I think.

Does it have something to do with syntagmatic dimension?--
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Try using Google:

distributional equivalence linguistics

CJ
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Was I right, Jim? I was just guessing.
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Thank you very much Mister Micawber

Now it is clear to me. So, if two words can appear in the same context, they have distribution equivalence. Then I can say, for example, the verbs (drove - bought) are distributionally equivalent if they can appear in the same context.

e.g.

1. Sami drove a big car.

2. Sami bought a big car.

Therefore, the verbs (drov
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CalifJimTry using Google:distributional equivalence linguisticsCJ

I used Google and found no examples.

Thanks
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Mr.elegetI used Google and found no examples.
I'm sorry to hear that. I thought sure you'd be able to find something.

CJ
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Mister MicawberWas I right, Jim? I was just guessing.
I have no idea. I found a couple of different definitions on-line, but they contradicted one another so I gave up! Most examples had to do with phonetics -- something like "b" and "p" being distributionally equivalent because of words like "bet" and "pet", "bad" and "pad", "bin" and "pin", or some such t
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