Research Groups

FrameNet Brasil

The FrameNet Brazil group originates from advances in research, human resource training, and partnership building achieved through the homonymous project, which began in 2007 within the Graduate Program in Linguistics (PPG-Linguística) at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), under the research line Linguistics and Cognition. Its work is integrated into graduate education, with the continuous production of master’s and doctoral research across all areas of focus. It also plays a significant role in technological innovation, having launched the FrameNet Brazil World Cup Dictionary (http://www.dicionariodacopa.com.br), the mknob virtual assistant (http://www.mknob.com), and the CARMA syntactic-semantic parser (http://carma.framenetbr.ufjf.br). The group develops knowledge bases grounded in frames and constructions for the computational processing of natural languages in multilingual and multimodal contexts. It maintains established partnerships with several international research groups and leads the Global FrameNet Initiative (https://globalframenet.org).

GPEL – Research Group on Latin Teaching

The group aims to promote theoretical reflection on the practice of teaching Latin language and literature in Brazil. Among its activities, the group highlights the encouragement of undergraduate and graduate research on the topic, the organization of seminars and discussion forums. Other objectives include the dissemination of these reflections through specialized publications and the development of didactic materials. It is important to note that the group is composed of researchers affiliated with institutions from different regions of Brazil: Unicamp, UFJF, UFES, and UFBA.  Publications from 2015: Release of the book: PRATA, P.; FORTES, F. Latim hoje: reflexões sobre cultura clássica e ensino. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 2015.  Organization of Issue 13 of PhaoS Journal (IEL), dedicated to the teaching of classical languages, Latin and Greek: http://revistas.iel.unicamp.br/index.php/phaos/issue/view/243. Editors: Paulo Sérgio de Vasconcellos (journal editor), Fábio Fortes, and Patricia Prata.

Crases: Linguistics and Philosophy

The research group Crases, led by Prof. Fábio Fortes, brings together faculty members of the Program whose research is oriented at the interface between the language sciences and philosophy. The group’s work is articulated around the thematic lines Epistemology and History of the Language Sciences and Argumentation, Discourse, and Power. The group meets primarily in the Laboratory of Philosophy of Language and Classical Studies, affiliated with the Language and Humanities research line of the Graduate Program in Linguistics (PPG-Linguística). In addition to scholarly publications, the group organizes academic events and offers outreach courses aimed at the broader community.

Research Group on Language Acquisition and Processing

The group is affiliated with NEALP (Language Acquisition and Psycholinguistics Lab, UFJF). The research conducted encompasses the investigation of perceptual, cognitive, linguistic, and non-linguistic abilities in both the process of language acquisition and adult language processing. The group seeks, within linguistic theory, to characterize the faculty of language and identify linguistic properties and operations that are compatible with models of language processing. The focus lies on both internal interfaces of language (syntax-semantics) and external interfaces (syntax-discourse/pragmatics).  As outcomes, group members have participated in national and international scientific events (BUCLD, IASCL, GALA, Romance Turn, ALFAL; ENAL/EIAL, EIPA, ABRALIN, ANPOLL, among others), served on evaluation committees, published articles in peer-reviewed journals (ranked A1 to B2), contributed book chapters, and organized the VIII ENAL / II EIAL.

Applied Linguistics, Education and Human Rights Research Group (LAEDH/UFJF/CNPq)

The Applied Linguistics, Education and Human Rights Research Group at UFJF (LAEDH/UFJF) stems from teaching, research, and outreach activities coordinated by Prof. Dr. Alexandre Cadilhe, in collaboration with undergraduate research and teaching fellows, as well as master’s and doctoral students from two UFJF graduate programs: Linguistics and Education. These activities are carried out through the following projects: 1)“Literacies and Citizenship Education” (PIBID/Letras – CAPES/UFJF, active since 2018); 2) “(Multi)Literacies and Social Interaction: Human Rights and Diversity in Teacher Education” (FAPEMIG/Universal Call, active since 2019); 3)“LAEDH/UFJF Extension Program” (Supported by UFJF’s Extension Program Call, active since 2020, offering continuing education courses for basic education teachers); 4)Symposium on Literacies and Human Rights, held biennially since 2019. In addition, LAEDH is part of the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Chair (UNHCR/UFJF), engaging in research and outreach initiatives focused on migration, refuge, and language education.

Investigation Nucleus on Grammar Theory (InTeGra)

INTEGRA is a research group inaugurated in 2018 under the Postgraduate Program in Linguistics at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. It is dedicated to the investigation of morphological, syntactic and morphosyntactic phenomena of natural languages. More specifically, through the description of the empirical functioning of these phenomena, the different research developed within the group seek to discuss theoretical approaches that may provide the data with an adequate analysis from an explanatory point of view. In general, INTEGRA’s work is developed under the study of the human language faculty within the generative approach, more specifically inside the scope of the theoretical tools provided by the current developments of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1993, 1995 and much subsequent work) and by the syntactic approaches to word formation, such as the Distributed Morphology framework (Halle and Marantz, 1993; Marantz, 1997 and much subsequent work) and the Exoesqueletal model (Borer, 2000 and much subsequent work).

NUPACT – Research Group in Constructionist Approaches and Translation

NUPACT – Research Group in Constructionist Approaches and Translation was officially established in September 2019 at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. At its core, NUPACT aims to create a convergence between the fundamental assumptions of Construction Grammar, Corpus Linguistics, and Translation Studies, with the substantial goal of bringing together research and researchers working with one or more of these approaches, either collaboratively or independently.

In practice, the center’s activities began in 2009, the year Professor Dr. Patrícia Fabiane Amaral da Cunha Lacerda joined the faculty of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. Since then, between September 2009 and September 2019, numerous doctoral dissertations, master’s theses, undergraduate final papers, and scientific initiation projects have been supervised. In addition, several publications have been produced in major national academic journals.