---
title: Brer Fox, he ain't sayin' nuthin', but Brer Bull-Frog, settin' on de… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Brer Fox, he ain't sayin' nuthin', but Brer Bull-Frog, settin' on de bank, he hear Brer Tarrypin, he did, en he holler back: Who acts: Fox. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XIV. Mr. Fox and the Deceitful Frogs, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XIV. Mr. Fox and the Deceitful Frogs, sentence 17

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Brer Fox, he ain't sayin' nuthin', but Brer Bull-Frog, settin' on de bank, he hear Brer Tarrypin, he did, en he holler back:

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**Who acts:** Fox · **What happens:** hear, do, holler back · **To what, where:** Brer, de bank

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XIV. Mr. Fox and the Deceitful Frogs. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Fox), 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:pg2306:17:17
# text = Brer Fox, he ain't sayin' nuthin', but Brer Bull-Frog, settin' on de bank, he hear Brer Tarrypin, he did, en he holler back:
1	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	ai	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	sayin	sayin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
9	nuthin	nuthin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	',	',	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
13	Bull	Bull	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Frog	Frog	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	settin	settin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	21	compound	_	_
21	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	hear	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	_
25	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
26	Tarrypin	Tarrypin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	holler	holler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
34	back	back	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Fox | Brer |  | de bank |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer brer=Stimulus |
| 2 | **do** | past | Fox |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **holler back** *speech: other* |  | Fox |  |  |  |  |  | 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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