«When you have the corna and you're proud of that». Fare e avere le corna nell'italiano contemporaneo

This paper focuses on Italian idiomatic expressions (i.e.) fare le corna and avere le corna as a symbol of cheating. The i.e. are enquired in databases of written and spoken Italian starting from real use and evaluating occurrences. This analysis sheds light on the lexical and syntactic flexibility of the expressions highlighting their possible changes in context, the semantic relevance of every element and the productivity of the i.e. both on the level of single utterances and on that of discourse. The analyses lead to considerations about the pragmatic value of the use of fare and avere le corna and their possible modifications.