Mário A. Perini is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has taught at Campinas University (UNICAMP), Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUCMinas), University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and University of Mississippi (Oxford). His current research deals with general and Portuguese lexicology, semantics and syntax, in a cognitive perspective. This is his sixteenth published book, all in the areas of linguistics and language teaching; the list includes: Modern Portuguese: a reference grammar (2002. Yale University Press); Talking Brazilian: a Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation workbook (2004. Yale University Press); A língua do Brasil amanhã e outros mistérios (2004. Parábola Editorial); Princípios de linguística descritiva: introdução ao pensamento gramatical (2006. Parábola Editorial); Describing verb valency: practical and theoretical issues. (2015. Springer); Gramática descritiva do português brasileiro (2016. Editora Vozes); Sintaxe (2019, Parábola Editorial).

• 1 Introduction.- Part I: Grammar and cognition.- 2 Language and cognition.- 3 Semantic role elaboration.- 4 Notes on methodology.- Part II: Valency.- 5 Valency.- 6 The limits of valency.- 7 Assignment by default.- 8 Thematic potential.- 9 Prototypes and prototype rules.- 10 ETRs and semantic roles.- Part III: Descriptive application.- 11 What is a Patient?.- 12 Experiencer, Theme, Goal, and Patient.- 13  Case studies.- 14 Apology of the lexicon.- 15 Results and conclusions.

Mário A. Perini is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has taught at Campinas University (UNICAMP), Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUCMinas), University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and University of Mississippi (Oxford). His current research deals with general and Portuguese lexicology, semantics and syntax, in a cognitive perspective. This is his sixteenth published book, all in the areas of linguistics and language teaching; the list includes: Modern Portuguese: a reference grammar (2002. Yale University Press); Talking Brazilian: a Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation workbook (2004. Yale University Press); A língua do Brasil amanhã e outros mistérios (2004. Parábola Editorial); Princípios de linguística descritiva: introdução ao pensamento gramatical (2006. Parábola Editorial); Describing verb valency: practical and theoretical issues. (2015. Springer); Gramática descritiva do português brasileiro (2016. Editora Vozes); Sintaxe (2019, Parábola Editorial).

• 1 Introduction.- Part I: Grammar and cognition.- 2 Language and cognition.- 3 Semantic role elaboration.- 4 Notes on methodology.- Part II: Valency.- 5 Valency.- 6 The limits of valency.- 7 Assignment by default.- 8 Thematic potential.- 9 Prototypes and prototype rules.- 10 ETRs and semantic roles.- Part III: Descriptive application.- 11 What is a Patient?.- 12 Experiencer, Theme, Goal, and Patient.- 13  Case studies.- 14 Apology of the lexicon.- 15 Results and conclusions.