[…] the method of this chapter enables us to state on distributional bases results, such as paradigms, which are often (and much more easily) obtained by considerations of meaning. However, again as in the case of the other procedures, the method enables us to check the distributional relevance of the meaning differentia, and enables us to find patternings over and beyond those whole meanings we consider ‘grammatical’. The fact that distributional methods are able to bring out the major grammatical meaning categories is merely an indication that the old results are not lost in the new methods.
- Harris (1951), Pag. 311, n.21