Compounds and multi-word expressions in Italian

It is often observed that compounds, being complex words formed by two (or more) words, are the mor-phological constructions closest to syntactic constructions, and that this is the reason why drawing a line between compounds and phrases is often difficult. Other complex lexical units challenge – possibly even more – the distinction between syntax, morphology and the lexicon: these are generally known as multi-word expressions (MWEs). MWEs are larger than morphological words and are nonetheless stored into our lexicon. The very existence of such MWEs poses a number of theoretical questions regarding (i) the organization of the lexicon, and (ii) the relationship between MWEs and compounds. The paper addresses both these questions by discussing data from Italian. After briefly describing the state of the art as far as Italian compounds and MWEs are concerned, the papers deals with demarcation issues and explores pos-sible areas of competition between compounds and MWEs.