---
title: Brer Fox, dough, he's a kinder lawyer, en he argafy dis way--dat Bre… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Brer Fox, dough, he's a kinder lawyer, en he argafy dis way--dat Brer Possum wuz de fus one at de butter, en de fus one fer ter miss it, en mo'n dat, dar hang de signs on his mouf. Who acts: dey, fus fer ter. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XVII. Mr. R
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/20/46/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/) / [XVII. Mr. Rabbit Nibbles Up the Butter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/20/) / 46

# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XVII. Mr. Rabbit Nibbles Up the Butter, sentence 46

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Brer Fox, dough, he's a kinder lawyer, en he argafy dis way--dat Brer Possum wuz de fus one at de butter, en de fus one fer ter miss it, en mo'n dat, dar hang de signs on his mouf.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dey, fus fer ter · **What happens:** be, miss · **To what, where:** kinder lawyer, butter

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XVII. Mr. Rabbit Nibbles Up the Butter. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dey, fus fer ter), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2306:20:46
# text = Brer Fox, dough, he's a kinder lawyer, en he argafy dis way--dat Brer Possum wuz de fus one at de butter, en de fus one fer ter miss it, en mo'n dat, dar hang de signs on his mouf.
1	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	Fox	Fox	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	dough	dough	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	kinder	kind	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	10	amod	_	_
10	lawyer	lawyer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	_
14	argafy	argafy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	dat	dat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
19	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	Possum	Possum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	wuz	wuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	appos	_	_
22	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	24	advmod	_	_
23	fus	fus	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	_
25	at	at	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	27	compound	_	_
27	butter	butter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	conj	_	_
30	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	29	flat:foreign	_	_
31	fus	fus	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
32	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	fer	fer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	ter	ter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nsubj	_	_
35	miss	miss	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
36	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
38	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
39	mo'n	mo'n	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
40	dat	dat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	45	punct	_	_
42	dar	dar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
43	hang	hang	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	compound	_	_
44	de	de	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	compound	_	_
45	signs	sign	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	_
46	on	on	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
47	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	mouf	mouf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | dey | a kinder lawyer and en |  |  |  | Possum *nmod* | tree rules |
| 2 | **miss** | present | fus fer ter | butter |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 45](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/20/45/)
- next →: [sentence 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/20/47/)
- ↑ back to [XVII. Mr. Rabbit Nibbles Up the Butter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/20/)