---
title: Insubstantial though it may be, I would not at this hour exchange it… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Insubstantial though it may be, I would not at this hour exchange it for all the fame won by my mightier brethren of the pen--whom I most humbly salute. Who acts: I, pen. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Dear Frost:, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Insubstantial though it may be, I would not at this hour exchange it for all the fame won by my mightier brethren of the pen--whom I most humbly salute.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, pen · **What happens:** exchange, win, salute · **To what, where:** harm, fame

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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, pen), 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:pg2306:1:12
# text = Insubstantial though it may be, I would not at this hour exchange it for all the fame won by my mightier brethren of the pen--whom I most humbly salute.
1	Insubstantial	Insubstantial	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	vocative	_	_
2	though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	hour	hour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	exchange	exchange	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	for	for	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	fame	fame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
19	won	win	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	acl	_	_
20	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	mightier	mighty	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	23	amod	_	_
23	brethren	brethren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl:agent	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	pen	pen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
29	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	31	advmod	_	_
31	humbly	humbly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	salute	salute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exchange** | would | I | harm |  |  |  | for all fame; Insubstantial *vocative* | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme for fame=Co-Theme |
| 2 | **win** | participle |  | all fame *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **salute** |  | the pen |  |  |  |  |  | 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.

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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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