---
title: In the first of his series, a tortoise falls from a tree upon the he… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: In the first of his series, a tortoise falls from a tree upon the head of a jaguar and kills him; in one of Uncle Remus's stories, the terrapin falls from a shelf in Miss Meadows's house and stuns the fox, so that the latter fails to catch the rabbit. Who acts: tortoise, terrapin, latter. A sentence
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the first of his series, a tortoise falls from a tree upon the head of a jaguar and kills him; in one of Uncle Remus's stories, the terrapin falls from a shelf in Miss Meadows's house and stuns the fox, so that the latter fails to catch the rabbit.

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**Who acts:** tortoise, terrapin, latter · **What happens:** fall, kill, stun, fail, not catch · **To what, where:** first, Smith, shelf, fox, rabbit

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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 (tortoise, terrapin, latter), 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:pg2306:1:37
# text = In the first of his series, a tortoise falls from a tree upon the head of a jaguar and kills him; in one of Uncle Remus's stories, the terrapin falls from a shelf in Miss Meadows's house and stuns the fox, so that the latter fails to catch the rabbit.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	first	first	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	10	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	series	series	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	falls	fall	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	jaguar	jaguar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	kills	kill	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	34	obl	_	_
26	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
27	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	30	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	's	's	PART	POS	_	28	case	_	_
30	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	terrapin	terrapin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
34	falls	fall	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
35	from	from	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	shelf	shelf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
39	Miss	Miss	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
40	Meadows	Meadows	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	's	's	PART	POS	_	40	case	_	_
42	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obl	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	stuns	stun	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	conj	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
46	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	52	punct	_	_
48	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	52	mark	_	_
49	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	48	fixed	_	_
50	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	51	det	_	_
51	latter	latter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	nsubj	_	_
52	fails	fail	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	conj	_	_
53	to	to	PART	TO	_	54	mark	_	_
54	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	52	xcomp	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	54	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **fall** | present | a tortoise |  |  | the first of Smith's series |  | from a tree; upon the head of a jaguar | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in first=Location |
| 2 | **kill** | present | a tortoise *not said here* | Smith |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | present | the terrapin |  |  | a shelf |  | in one of Uncle Remus's stories; in Miss Meadows's house | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in one=Location |
| 4 | **stun** | present | the terrapin *not said here* | the fox |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus fox=Experiencer |
| 5 | **fail** | present | the latter |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **not** **catch** | to-infinitive | the latter *not said here* | the rabbit |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=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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