---
title: "Seein' um's better'n hearin' tell un um, replied the old man, the s… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Seein' um's better'n hearin' tell un um, replied the old man, the severity of his countenance relaxing somewhat; but the little boy darted out, and in a few minutes came running back with his pockets full and his hands full. Who acts: countenance, little boy. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs a
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, VII. Mr. Fox Is Again Victimized, sentence 12

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"Seein' um's better'n hearin' tell un um, replied the old man, the severity of his countenance relaxing somewhat; but the little boy darted out, and in a few minutes came running back with his pockets full and his hands full.

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**Who acts:** countenance, little boy · **What happens:** tell, reply, relax, dart out, come, run back · **To what, where:** better'n hearin, old man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, VII. Mr. Fox Is Again Victimized. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (countenance, little boy), 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:pg2306:10:12
# text = "Seein' um's better'n hearin' tell un um, replied the old man, the severity of his countenance relaxing somewhat; but the little boy darted out, and in a few minutes came running back with his pockets full and his hands full.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Seein	Seein	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	'	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	um	um	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	better'n	better'n	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	hearin	hearin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	un	un	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	um	um	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	severity	severity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	appos	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	relaxing	relax	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	22	acl	_	_
24	somewhat	somewhat	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	darted	dart	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
31	out	out	ADP	RP	_	30	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	minutes	minute	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	_
38	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
39	running	run	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	38	advcl	_	_
40	back	back	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
41	with	with	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	pockets	pocket	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	_
44	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
45	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
46	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	47	nmod:poss	_	_
47	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	48	nsubj	_	_
48	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present |  | Seein's um's better'n hearin |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent um=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | the old man |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 3 | **relax** *in a quote* | gerund | man's countenance *not said here* |  |  |  |  | somewhat *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **dart out** *in a quote* | participle | the little boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **come** *in a quote* | past |  |  |  |  | minute |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **run back** *in a quote* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | with boy's pockets | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent with pocket=Material |

<!-- .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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