Question

What does it mean when two sounds are in contrastive distribution?

• A. They never occur in the same environment
• B. Their exchange causes no meaning change
• C. They are variants of the same phoneme
• D. They occur in the same environment and change meaning

Answer 1

Answer:

D. They occur in the same environment and change meaning

• This is how phonemes are identified — when replacing one sound with another changes the word’s meaning.