Márcia Cançado - UFMG/CNPq
Creator and coordinator of VerboWeb
THE PROJECT
The syntactic-semantic classification project of Brazilian Portuguese verbs began in 1995, with the completion of my doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Professor Carlos Franchi, to whom I express my deep gratitude. At that time, the proposal had not yet taken the form of a database but already emerged as a germinal idea.
Inspired by Levin’s (1993) work, which classified English verbs based on syntactic properties correlated with meaning, I began analyzing psychological verbs in Brazilian Portuguese, observing their syntactic and semantic behavior. The methodology consisted of a detailed analysis of verbs listed in the Dicionário Gramatical de Verbos do Português Contemporâneo (Borba et al.), from which I selected approximately 300 verbs and constructed around 4,000 sentences, aiming to describe their grammatical behavior and propose a linguistic classification.
Since joining the Faculty of Letters at UFMG, also in 1995, I have been expanding this line of research to include other verb classes linked to different semantic domains. Over the past three decades, I have maintained the same analytical method suggested by Franchi, now combined with computational tools that extend its reach. This work has resulted in the analysis and organization of more than 2,000 verbs, gathered in this database, which is the outcome of publications, courses taught, student advising, and ongoing dedication (see "Source of Analyses").
The conception of the database emerged around 2015, culminating in the first version of VerboWeb, launched in 2017 with 1,619 verbs. This version involved the collaboration of Luana Amaral and Letícia Meirelles, in addition to undergraduate students and advisees. The second version included category adjustments but faced structural limitations.
In 2025, the VerboWeb 3.0 version was released, featuring a new architecture, a revised classification, and the incorporation of usage examples collected primarily from the web (currently in development). The new version includes more than 2,020 verbs and a redesigned interface. Its construction again involved undergraduate student collaboration, especially in the inclusion of examples.
VerboWeb is a free tool designed for academic purposes, with significant potential for Portuguese grammar teaching—both at the elementary school level and in Portuguese as an Additional Language (PAL) instruction. With appropriate technical adaptations, it may also be applied in Natural Language Processing (NLP) contexts. This is a continuous project, open to the incorporation of new verbs, meanings, and verbal expressions.
TEAM OF CONTRIBUTORS
Current collaborators
Izabel Cândido – Undergraduate, FALE/UFMG – (2024–present)
Sofia Sauer – Undergraduate, FALE/UFMG – (2024–present)
