---
title: Whether they originated there, or with the Arabs, or Egyptians, or w… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Whether they originated there, or with the Arabs, or Egyptians, or with yet more ancient nations, must still be an open question. Who acts: stories. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Dear Frost:, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 70

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Whether they originated there, or with the Arabs, or Egyptians, or with yet more ancient nations, must still be an open question.

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**Who acts:** stories · **What happens:** originate, be · **To what, where:** open question

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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 (stories), 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:pg2306:1:70
# text = Whether they originated there, or with the Arabs, or Egyptians, or with yet more ancient nations, must still be an open question.
1	Whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	originated	originate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Arabs	Arab	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	Egyptians	Egyptian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
16	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	18	advmod	_	_
18	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	nations	nation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
22	still	still	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	cop	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	open	open	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	question	question	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **originate** | past | stories *= story* |  |  | there |  | with the Arabs or Egyptians | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with arab=Instrument |
| 2 | **is a** | must | stories *= story* *not said here* | a open question |  |  | still |  | tree rules |

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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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