O processo de classificação verbal do português brasileiro: uma investigação a partir de Levin e Rappaport Hovav

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate the main aspects involving the process of verbal classification of Brazilian Portuguese (abbreviated as PB). Therefore, we seek to do a theoretical-bibliographical work on how this process occurs, highlighting some of the main methods and criteria adopted. We acknowledge that verbs play a key role in describing the meaning of a sentence. They denote the semantics of an event being described, and offer information related to their projections of syntactic structures that are part of the event. From this, we are going to use the main proposals of Levin (1993) and Levin and Rappaport Hovav (1995, 1998, 2005, 2008, 2010), which present a vast study about verbs and their classifications, as an initial theoretical basis. We will also use as a theoretical reference the studies on the verbs of Brazilian Portuguese, proposing a discussion about the main conceptions brought by Cançado and Amaral (2016), Cançado, Godoy and Amaral (2017, 2013), Cançado, Amaral and Meirelles (2017, 2018), Perini (2007, 2015a, 2015b), among others, considering the fact that they are recent works and that used, to a certain extent, the ideas developed by Levin and Rappaport Hovav. We seek to present the main methods and criteria utilized in the verb classification process of PB, emphasizing the importance of studies within the area of Lexical Syntactic-Semantic Interface. In addition, we will offer as a model of investigation and analysis the broad class of causation verbs proposed by Cançado, Amaral and Meirelles (2017) in the VerboWeb online catalog, so that we can analyze and reflect on how the verbal classification process of PB occurs. This research started from the need for more studies on verbs and the PB classification process, as well as the fact that there is little literature on the criteria, methods and aspects involved in this process. Thus, we seek to endorse the linguistic studies that involve the verb and its classification process, especially regarding to Brazilian Portuguese.