diff --git a/libmwereader/mwereader.cpp b/libmwereader/mwereader.cpp
index 6fe0d1e5c0df1635eeea7f20b6d513d9b6dfe2af..b8e09098971e5737e2fde6d5dd05f900ea309bf1 100644
--- a/libmwereader/mwereader.cpp
+++ b/libmwereader/mwereader.cpp
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 #include "mwereader.h"
+#include "mweparser.h"
 #include <boost/algorithm/string.hpp>
 
 namespace Corpus2{
 
 bool MWEReader::registered = TokenReader::register_path_reader<MWEReader>(
-	"mwereader","inner,mwepath"); // TODO more help?
+	"mwereader","inner,mwefile"); // TODO more help?
 
 	MWEReader::MWEReader(const Tagset &tagset, const std::string &filename)
 		: TokenReader(tagset), inner_filename_(filename)
@@ -43,11 +44,15 @@ bool MWEReader::registered = TokenReader::register_path_reader<MWEReader>(
 		if(boost::algorithm::starts_with(option, "inner:")) {
 			std::string inner = option.substr(6);
 			inner_reader_ = create_path_reader(inner, this->tagset(),
-											   inner_filename_);
+											inner_filename_);
+		}
+		if(boost::algorithm::starts_with(option, "mwefile:")) {
+			std::string mwefile = option.substr(8);
+			load_mwes(mwefile);
 		}
 
 
-		// TODO MWE stuff
+		// TODO more MWE stuff
 	}
 
 	void MWEReader::validate()
@@ -66,5 +71,11 @@ bool MWEReader::registered = TokenReader::register_path_reader<MWEReader>(
 		return inner_reader_->get_option(option);
 	}
 
+	void MWEReader::load_mwes(const std::string &filename)
+	{
+		MWEParser parser;
+		parser.parse_file(filename);
+	}
+
 
 }// ns Corpus2
diff --git a/libmwereader/mwereader.h b/libmwereader/mwereader.h
index e1e2c2b468293251cc0a2f8b72abb0b67d2ca38d..7b8b4d9e39d4820b505f04b3fa1c5102c308db18 100644
--- a/libmwereader/mwereader.h
+++ b/libmwereader/mwereader.h
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 #include <libcorpus2/io/reader.h>
 
+#include "mwe.h"
+
 namespace Corpus2 {
 
 
@@ -43,7 +45,11 @@ public:
 	virtual void validate();
 
 	static bool registered;
+
 private:
+	void load_mwes(const std::string& filename);
+
+	//MWEIndex mwe_index_;
 	/// ptr to inner reader doing the real work of reading a corpus
 	TokenReaderPtr inner_reader_;
 	/// path for inner reader