---
title: lol, why'd possum say he played dead? — Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby St… · tree and pragmatics
description: lol, why'd possum say he played dead? Test 11 · ★ 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 was right.
---

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# Test 11 · ★ · Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story: Brer Rabbit get…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
lol, why'd possum say he played dead?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** he · **What happens:** say, play · **To what, where:** possum, dead · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is test 11 · ★ 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/#t11).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t11:1
# text = lol, why'd possum say he played dead?
1	lol	lol	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	'd	'd	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	_
5	possum	possum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	played	play	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
9	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present |  | possum |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **play** | past | he | dead |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dead=Theme |

<!-- .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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
cuz he's super ticklish

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t11:o1:1
# text = cuz he's super ticklish
1	cuz	cuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	super	super	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	ticklish	ticklish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	acl:relcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | he | cuz *not said here* |  |  |  | super, ticklish *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
cuz the dog's bite was super ticklish to him

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t11:o2:1
# text = cuz the dog's bite was super ticklish to him
1	cuz	cuz	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	bite	bite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
7	super	super	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	ticklish	ticklish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	ccomp	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cuz** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | the dog's bite |  | dog |  |  | super, ticklish *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **bite** |  | the dog |  |  |  |  |  | nom bite «state transitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
cuz he's super ticklish and can't stand it at all

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t11:o3:1
# text = cuz he's super ticklish and can't stand it at all
1	cuz	cuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	super	super	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	ticklish	ticklish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	stand	stand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	9	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | cuz |  |  |  |  | super, ticklish *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **stand** | can | cuz *not said here* | cuz |  | all |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme at all=Destination |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
cuz he's real sleepy now

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:568-pg2306-part4:t11:o4:1
# text = cuz he's real sleepy now
1	cuz	cuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	sleepy	sleepy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | cuz |  |  |  | now | sleepy *property* | tree rules |

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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