---
title: A pumpkin is an exceedingly awkward thing to carry, and the Irishman… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: A pumpkin is an exceedingly awkward thing to carry, and the Irishman had not gone far before he made a misstep, and stumbled. Who acts: pumpkin, Irishman, negro. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Dear Frost:, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 107

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A pumpkin is an exceedingly awkward thing to carry, and the Irishman had not gone far before he made a misstep, and stumbled.

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**Who acts:** pumpkin, Irishman, negro · **What happens:** be, carry, not go, make, stumble · **To what, where:** awkward thing, misstep

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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 (pumpkin, Irishman, negro), 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:pg2306:1:107
# text = A pumpkin is an exceedingly awkward thing to carry, and the Irishman had not gone far before he made a misstep, and stumbled.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	pumpkin	pumpkin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	awkward	awkward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Irishman	Irishman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
16	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	parataxis	_	_
17	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
18	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	misstep	misstep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	stumbled	stumble	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | a pumpkin | a awkward thing |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **carry** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **go** | past · perfect | the Irishman |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | past | negro | a misstep |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent misstep=Product |
| 5 | **stumble** | participle | negro *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=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.

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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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