Distributional method describes environments of linguistic units ( morphemes, words, phrases), representing them symbolically: N – noun, A– adjective, T – article,V – verb, D – adverb.
Distribution is the total of all the environments in which an element can occur; all occurrences can be symbolized. The distribution of the verb to make can be presented in the following way: He makes me do it (NVNVtoN), He makes up for smth (Nvup for N), I make a present (NVTN), I make a bed (NVTN), etc.
There are a number of postulates here to be observed:
if two or more distributional formulas are identical their meanings are identical;
if two or more distributional formulas are different their meanings are different.
But in actual usage this method turns out to be too formalized, as one and the same distributional formula conceals different meanings. Semantically different structures I make a bed, I make a basket, I make a road, I make a promise are symbolized by one and the same formula NVTN. The Distributional method doesn’t reveal any difference between the structures Napoleon’s victory and Napoleon’s defeat, though we feel intuitively that they are semantically different.