lexical phonology (LP)

A theory of PHONOLOGY in which MORPHOLOGICAL and PHONOLOGICAL RULES are brought together within a single framework. The approach is based on the insight that much of the phonology operates together with the WORD-FORMATION rules in a CYCLIC fashion to define the class of LEXICAL items in a language. The morphological sub-theory is ‘level-ordered’: AFFIXES are differentiated, not by the use of BOUNDARY-MARKERS (as in earlier phonological theory), but by being divided into distinct subsets (numbered ‘levels’ or ‘strata’) within the LEXICON, where the division of the word-formation rules corresponds to a division among the phonological rules. The phonological sub-theory is divided into a lexical (sometimes called a cyclic) COMPONENT and a post-lexical (sometimes called a post-cyclic) component, the latter also being referred to as the ‘PHRASAL phonology’, as its rules operate across word boundaries, making use of SYNTACTIC structure.