Multi-word expressions between syntax and the lexicon: the case of Italian verb-particle constructions

This paper focuses on multi-word expressions, i.e. lexical units larger than a word that can bear both idiomatic and compositional meanings. Multi-word expressions are a privileged domain for the study of the syntax-lexicon relationship, which is also the main concern of current theoretical approaches such as Construction Grammar. In particular, the paper provides a synchronic and diachronic analysis of a particular (and quite neglected) kind of multi-word expression, i.e. Italian verb-particle constructions. The synchronic part provides a syntactic and semantic analysis of these complex predicates: their syntactic and semantic behaviour will be taken as evidence of their structural cohesion. The second part deals with the development of verb-particle constructions in Italian and provides original diachronic data that will shed new light on the issue. Finally, we will draw some theoretical conclusions from the analyses and show how the findings seem to speak in favour of a constructional approach to verb-particle constructions and to multi-word expressions in general.