The main research of descriptive linguistics, and the only relation which will be accepted as relevant in the present survey, is the distribution or arrangement within the flow of speech of some parts or features relatively to others. The present survey is thus limited to questions of distribution, i.e. the freedom of occurrence of portions of an utterance relatively to each other.
- Harris (1951), a pag.5

The only preliminary step that is essential to this science is the restriction to distribution as determining the relevance of inquiry. The particular methods described in this book are not essential.
- Harris (1951), a pag.6

It may be presumed that any two morphemes 'A' and 'B' having differrent meanings also differ somewhere in distribution: there are some environments in which one occurs and the other does not.
- Harris (1951), a pag.7, n.4