Computational issues in compound processing

Understanding compounds is a challenging computational task, cutting across multiple levels of linguistic analysis and touching upon intricate issues of representation, grammar architecture and algorithmic processing. At the same time, compounds raise all these problems in the most direct and exemplar way. From this perspective, they are an ideal probe into core issues of language architecture, making us pause about the need for advanced processing models and multi-disciplinary approaches to long-lasting linguistic cruces. This chapter reviews some of the lessons that can be learned from reading twenty years of computational literature on the topic and assesses them against the background of germane theoretical and cognitive issues.