---
title: "ONE day," said Uncle Remus, sharpening his knife on the palm of his… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "ONE day," said Uncle Remus, sharpening his knife on the palm of his hand--"one day Brer Fox strike up wid Brer Tarrypin right in de middle er de big road. Who acts: ONE day, day Brer. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XII. Mr. Fox Tackles Old Man Tarryp
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XII. Mr. Fox Tackles Old Man Tarrypin, sentence 1

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"ONE day," said Uncle Remus, sharpening his knife on the palm of his hand--"one day Brer Fox strike up wid Brer Tarrypin right in de middle er de big road.

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**Who acts:** ONE day, day Brer · **What happens:** say, sharpen, strike up, wi · **To what, where:** knife, palm, Brer, de middle er · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XII. Mr. Fox Tackles Old Man Tarrypin. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ONE day, day Brer), 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:pg2306:15:1
# text = "ONE day," said Uncle Remus, sharpening his knife on the palm of his hand--"one day Brer Fox strike up wid Brer Tarrypin right in de middle er de big road.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	ONE	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	sharpening	sharpen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	Fox	Fox	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	flat	_	_
25	strike	strike	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	acl:relcl	_	_
26	up	up	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	wid	wi	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
28	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	Tarrypin	Tarrypin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	flat	_	_
30	right	right	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	de	de	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
33	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	er	er	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
35	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	34	conj	_	_
36	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | ONE day |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **sharpen** | gerund | ONE day *not said here* | Remus's knife |  | the palm of Remus's hand |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent knife=Patient |
| 3 | **strike up** *in a quote* | present | day Brer *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **wi** *in a quote* | past | day Brer | Brer |  | de middle er |  |  | 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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