The study of compounds is currently at the center of attention in many areas of both theoretical and applied linguistics. This volume brings together contributions by experts involved in a wide range of such areas, based on a large number of diverse languages - spoken and signed. The fact that compound constructions are at the interface of the various components of language - morphology, syntax, phonology, and semantics - makes them ideal testing grounds for models of grammatical architecture, as seen in a number of these chapters. The breadth and depth of the coverage of topics, as well as the unified bibliography, make this volume a basic reference source for those interested in current theoretical as well as experimental approaches to compounding, and thus to theoretical linguists as well as psycholinguists and researchers in related fields of cognitive science.