---
title: Curiously enough, I have found few negroes who will acknowledge to a… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Curiously enough, I have found few negroes who will acknowledge to a stranger that they know anything of these legends; and yet to relate one of the stories is the surest road to their confidence and esteem. Who acts: I, few negroes, ethnologists, one. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His S
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 101

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Curiously enough, I have found few negroes who will acknowledge to a stranger that they know anything of these legends; and yet to relate one of the stories is the surest road to their confidence and esteem.

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**Who acts:** I, few negroes, ethnologists, one · **What happens:** find, acknowledge, know, relate, be, confide · **To what, where:** few negroes, stranger, anything, surest road

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Dear Frost:. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, few negroes, ethnologists, one), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2306:1:101
# text = Curiously enough, I have found few negroes who will acknowledge to a stranger that they know anything of these legends; and yet to relate one of the stories is the surest road to their confidence and esteem.
1	Curiously	curiously	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	1	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
7	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	negroes	negro	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	acknowledge	acknowledge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl:relcl	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	stranger	stranger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
18	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	17	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	21	det	_	_
21	legends	legend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	relate	relate	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	nsubj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	_
31	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	surest	sure	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	34	amod	_	_
34	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	ccomp	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	confidence	confidence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	esteem	esteem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **find** | present · perfect | I | few negroes |  |  |  | curiously *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent negro=Topic |
| 2 | **acknowledge** | future | few negroes |  | a stranger |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to stranger=Recipient |
| 3 | **know** | present | ethnologists *= ethnologist* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |
| 4 | **relate** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | yet |  | vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | present | one of the stories | the surest road |  |  |  | to ethnologists's confidence and esteem | tree rules |
| 6 | **confide** |  | ethnologists *= ethnologist* |  |  |  |  |  | nom confidence «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

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**Text:** «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Project Gutenberg book 2306 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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