---
title: so brer coon called possum a coward, straight up? — Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby St… · tree and pragmatics
description: so brer coon called possum a coward, straight up? Test 10 · ★ of lesson 568 «Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story: Brer Rabbit gets stuck fast to the Tar-Baby» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice
---

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# Test 10 · ★ · Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story: Brer Rabbit get…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
so brer coon called possum a coward, straight up?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** coward · **What happens:** call, straight up · **To what, where:** brer coon · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 568 «Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story: Brer Rabbit gets stuck fast to the Tar-Baby» of the books course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/568-pg2306-part4/#t10).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t10:1
# text = so brer coon called possum a coward, straight up?
1	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	brer	br	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
3	coon	coon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	possum	possum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	xcomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	coward	coward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	straight	straight	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | participle · passive |  | brer coon |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **straight up** | infinitive | a coward *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
nope, he called him a cowerd and a liar too

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t10:o1:1
# text = nope, he called him a cowerd and a liar too
1	nope	nope	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	cowerd	cowerd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	liar	liar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	too	too	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | he |  | him *= he* |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yeah, he said cowerd

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t10:o2:1
# text = yeah, he said cowerd
1	yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	cowerd	cowerd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | he | cowerd |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent cowerd=Topic |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yeah, he said cowerd and then ran off laughin'

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t10:o3:1
# text = yeah, he said cowerd and then ran off laughin'
1	yeah	yeah	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	cowerd	cowerd	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
8	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
9	off	off	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	laughin	laughin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | he | cowerd |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent cowerd=Topic |
| 2 | **run off** | past | he *not said here* | laughin |  |  | then |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme laughin=Trajectory |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
yep, he said lazy dog

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t10:o4:1
# text = yep, he said lazy dog
1	yep	yep	INTJ	UH	_	4	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	lazy	lazy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | he | lazy dog |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent dog=Topic |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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