Systems and methods for processing a query include determining a plurality of sets of match candidates for a query using a processor, each of the plurality of sets of match candidates being independently determined from a plurality of diverse word lattice generation components of different type. The plurality of sets of match candidates is merged by generating a first score for each match candidate to provide a merged set of match candidates. A second score is computed for each match candidate of the merged set based upon features of that match candidate. The first score and the second score are combined to provide a final set of match candidates as matches to the query.