In general, it is not essential that the speech-feature representation of a long component be identical in all portions of its length. It is essential only that the speech feature represented in one portion be limited in its occurrence to the occurrence of the speech feature represented in the next portion of the component. It is, of course, easier to recognize this limitation when the features in question are identical, i.e. when the long component records the presence of an observed speech feature such as voicelessness throughout its length.
- Harris (1951), a pag.129, n.11

The fact that English has morpheme-medial clusters like /rtr/ ('partridge') but never like /trt/, could be expressed by saying that all English consonants contain a long component which extends over all successive consonants (within a morpheme), and which is defined to indicate ‘vowel’ when it is preceded by any continuant which is in turn preceded by a stop. I.e. any unit segment over which this component extends, and which is preceded by stop + continuant, can only indicate some vowel. Such a component, included in all the segments of the morpheme, would admit consonantal indication to the segment which follows the /r/ of 'curtain', or those which follow the /t/ of 'ostrich' or of 'partridge' (the latter two are preceded by continuant + stop). But it would require the segment which follows the /tr/ of 'mattress' to indicate a vowel; hence the sequence /tr/ + consonant will not occur.
- Harris (1951), a pag.129, n.12

Just as the phonemes of a language could be described as marking the independent distinctions among utterances (4.31), so the long components of a language can be described as marking the independent restrictions among these phonemes.
- Harris (1951), a pag.135, n.21

Long components may extend from one juncture to another. Thus if a Navaho word has any of the phonemes /š, ž, č, ǯ, č’/ it will have none of /s, z, c, Ʒ, c’/ and vice versa: zàs ‘snow’, šàּž ‘joint’, Ʒì-càּh ‘he is big’, ?àž-č’àⁿh ‘it has fallen in the fire’. We extract ˇ as a component extending over all the phonemes between any two word junctures, and defined as indicating tongue blade approach (to the alveolar ridge) on /s, z, c, Ʒ, c’/ and zero on all other phonemes. Then we have /#zàs#/, /#sàּzˇ#/, /#Ʒì-càּh#/, /#?àz-c’àⁿhˇ#/. It is of course convenient if the extension of a component is from one juncture to another, for the statement of the boundaries of the component is then simpler. (p.130)
- Harris (1951), a pag.130