---
title: He tells the latter he can drag him into the sea, but the tapir reto… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: He tells the latter he can drag him into the sea, but the tapir retorts that he will pull the tortoise into the forest and kill him besides. Who acts: tortoise, tapir. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Dear Frost:, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 41

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He tells the latter he can drag him into the sea, but the tapir retorts that he will pull the tortoise into the forest and kill him besides.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tortoise, tapir · **What happens:** tell, drag, retort, pull, kill · **To what, where:** latter, rabbit, sea, tortoise, forest · **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 (tortoise, tapir), 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:pg2306:1:41
# text = He tells the latter he can drag him into the sea, but the tapir retorts that he will pull the tortoise into the forest and kill him besides.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	tells	tell	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	latter	latter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	obj	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	drag	drag	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	tapir	tapir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	retorts	retort	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	pull	pull	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	into	into	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	conj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	besides	besides	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | tortoise | the latter |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent latter=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **drag** | can | tortoise | rabbit |  | the sea |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **retort** *speech: other* | present | the tapir |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **pull** | future | tortoise | the tortoise |  | the forest |  |  | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tortoise=Theme |
| 5 | **kill** | infinitive | tortoise *not said here* | tortoise |  |  |  | besides *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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