IS IT A COMPOUND WORD OR PHRASE?

Compound words are usually confused with similar structures due to the fact that they results from the combination of more than one word. It is important to understand the difference between phrases that are similar in terms of both definition and structure. Phrases are temporary, whilst compound words are permanent structures. Phrases may also refer to a concept such as compound words. Sometimes phrases may even enter in the process of lexicalization which can further complicate the situation. Nowadays, various criteria have been found to help identify compound words. In this study, we focused on determining which structures are the compound words based on the phonological, morphological, semantical, syntactic and lexicalization criterias. We attempted to explain that even though the differences between compound words and phrases are not very distinct, they help to distinguish these types of structures. In this study, we tried to revealed these differences.