Python 2.7.5 (default, Mar  9 2014, 22:15:05)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 5.0 (clang-500.0.68)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> def literal():
...     return "the red cat".split(" ")
...
>>> def explicit():
...     return str.split("the red cat", " ")
...
>>> import dis
>>> dis.dis(literal)
  2           0 LOAD_CONST               1 ('the red cat')
              3 LOAD_ATTR                0 (split)
              6 LOAD_CONST               2 (' ')
              9 CALL_FUNCTION            1
             12 RETURN_VALUE
>>> dis.dis(explicit)
  2           0 LOAD_GLOBAL              0 (str)
              3 LOAD_ATTR                1 (split)
              6 LOAD_CONST               1 ('the red cat')
              9 LOAD_CONST               2 (' ')
             12 CALL_FUNCTION            2
             15 RETURN_VALUE
>>>