---
title: In the next, a jaguar catches a tortoise by the hind-leg as he is di… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: In the next, a jaguar catches a tortoise by the hind-leg as he is disappearing in his hole; but the tortoise convinces him he is holding a root, and so escapes; Uncle Remus tells how the fox endeavored to drown the terrapin, but turned him loose because the terrapin declared his tail to be only a st
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 38

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the next, a jaguar catches a tortoise by the hind-leg as he is disappearing in his hole; but the tortoise convinces him he is holding a root, and so escapes; Uncle Remus tells how the fox endeavored to drown the terrapin, but turned him loose because the terrapin declared his tail to be only a stump-root.

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**Who acts:** jaguar, tortoise, Uncle Remus, fox, terrapin · **What happens:** catch, disappear, convince, hold, tell, endeavor · **To what, where:** tortoise, next, hole, jaguar, root, terrapin · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (jaguar, tortoise, Uncle Remus, fox), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2306:1:38
# text = In the next, a jaguar catches a tortoise by the hind-leg as he is disappearing in his hole; but the tortoise convinces him he is holding a root, and so escapes; Uncle Remus tells how the fox endeavored to drown the terrapin, but turned him loose because the terrapin declared his tail to be only a stump-root.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	jaguar	jaguar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	catches	catch	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
12	hind	hind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	disappearing	disappear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	convinces	convince	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	root	root	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	so	so	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	escapes	escape	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	40	punct	_	_
38	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	compound	_	_
39	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
40	tells	tell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
41	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	44	advmod	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	_
44	endeavored	endeavor	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	ccomp	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	drown	drown	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	44	xcomp	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	terrapin	terrapin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	51	punct	_	_
50	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	51	cc	_	_
51	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
52	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	51	obj	_	_
53	loose	loose	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
54	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	57	mark	_	_
55	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
56	terrapin	terrapin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	nsubj	_	_
57	declared	declare	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	51	advcl	_	_
58	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	59	nmod:poss	_	_
59	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obj	_	_
60	to	to	PART	TO	_	66	mark	_	_
61	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	66	cop	_	_
62	only	only	ADV	RB	_	66	advmod	_	_
63	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
64	stump	stump	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	66	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
65	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	64	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
66	root	root	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
67	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | present | a jaguar | a tortoise |  | the next |  | by the hind leg | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tortoise=Theme |
| 2 | **disappear** | present · progressive | jaguar |  |  | jaguar's hole |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **convince** | present | the tortoise | jaguar |  |  |  | escapes *obl* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 4 | **hold** | present · progressive | tortoise | a root |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent root=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | Uncle Remus |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **endeavor** | past | the fox |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **drown** | to-infinitive | the fox *not said here* | the terrapin |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent terrapin=Patient |
| 8 | **turn** | past | a jaguar *not said here* | terrapin |  |  |  | loose *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme he=Result |
| 9 | **declare** *speech: other* | past | the terrapin | terrapin's tail |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Attribute |
| 10 | **is a** | to-infinitive | the terrapin *not said here* | a stump root |  |  |  |  | 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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