QLP structure

1. QLP (`quasi-linear precedence') morphotactics: How are the morphosyntactic categories realised in phonetic interpretation by phonological elements such as morphophonemes and prosodies?
2. In order to account for spelling and pronunciation, QLP structure requires more detailed functions than those introduced for ID categories, and an extension of the unification operation:
   • Permissible inflections for nouns:

     ,
     where:
     
     
     
     
     
     

     e.g. [ Number=plural, Case=nongenitive, Paradigm=regular ]
     

   • Relevant properties for nouns:

     ,
     where:
     Abbot, ... , Zygote
     Abacus, ... , Zygote
     
     
     
     

     e.g. [ Lemma = Bus, Orth = b u s, Phon = b V s, Paradigm = regular ]
     

   • QLP rule of construction for noun inflection. In order to define the QLP properties of inflected simplex words, the QLP properties of roots and inflections need to be combined. The construction rule can be abbreviated as a function which we will call ` ':

     
     

     For example, applying the function to and , and applying to the result, will give :

     
     
     
     = [ Lemma = Buses, Orth = b u s e s, Phon = b V s I z, Number=plural, Case=nongenitive, Paradigm=regular ])

3. QLP unification.

   The resulting feature structure shows that more detail is needed in order to specify the details of spelling and pronunciation. If the function is spelled out in detail, then the relevant affix and order of root and affix need to be specified. One way to do this is to specify the structure the function further for specific features:
   

   , where ` ' stands for the concatenation of and (to be interpreted as temporal, spatial, etc. order in CM structure).

4. For Discussion:
   • This treatment of QLP properties of inflected words does not yet handle prosodic properties such as changes in the stem syllable structure (e.g. umlaut), or patterns of lexical stress. How could this be done?
   • For discussion: How many QLP functions are required for German?
   • Phonological adaptation: How do the realisations of morphosyntactic categories affect the realisation of whole words?