  We discuss the characteristics and behaviour of two parallel classes of verbs
in two Romance languages, French and Portuguese. Examples of these verbs are
Port. abater [gado] and Fr. abattre [b\'etail], both meaning "slaughter
[cattle]". In both languages, the definition of the class of verbs includes
several features: - They have only one essential complement, which is a direct
object. - The nominal distribution of the complement is very limited, i.e., few
nouns can be selected as head nouns of the complement. However, this selection
is not restricted to a single noun, as would be the case for verbal idioms such
as Fr. monter la garde "mount guard". - We excluded from the class
constructions which are reductions of more complex constructions, e.g. Port.
afinar [instrumento] com "tune [instrument] with".
