The distribution of a unit is the total of all its environments; in other words, the distribution of a unit is its environment in generalised terms of classes or categories.
The aim of distributional analysis (äèñòðèáóòèâíûé àíàëèç) is to fix and study the units of language in relation to their textual environments (the adjoining elements in the text).
Examples:
1) The/boat/s/were/gain/ing/speed
The analyzed lingual material is divided into morphs (ìîðôû) – a combination of phonemes that has a meaning which cannot be subdivided into smaller meaningful units.
2) un-pardon-able.
The environment of a unit may be either ‘right’ or ‘left’: in this word the left environment of the root is the negative prefix un-, the right environment of the root is the qualitative suffix -able. The root -pardon- is the right environment for the prefix, and the left environment for the suffix.
Three types of distribution: