---
title: "Lemme tell you dis," said the old man, laying down the section of h… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Lemme tell you dis," said the old man, laying down the section of horse-collar he had been plaiting, and looking hard at the little boy--"lemme tell you dis der ain't no way fer ter make tattlers en tailb'arers turn out good. Who acts: Lemme, old man, man, laying. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His So
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XIX. the Fate of Mr. Jack Sparrow, sentence 17

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Lemme tell you dis," said the old man, laying down the section of horse-collar he had been plaiting, and looking hard at the little boy--"lemme tell you dis der ain't no way fer ter make tattlers en tailb'arers turn out good.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Lemme, old man, man, laying, fer ter, en tailb'arers · **What happens:** tell, say, lay down, plait, look, not make · **To what, where:** dis, you, section, horse collar, lemme, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XIX. the Fate of Mr. Jack Sparrow. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lemme, old man, man, laying), 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:pg2306:22:17
# text = "Lemme tell you dis," said the old man, laying down the section of horse-collar he had been plaiting, and looking hard at the little boy--"lemme tell you dis der ain't no way fer ter make tattlers en tailb'arers turn out good.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Lemme	Lemme	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	laying	lay	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	36	csubj	_	_
14	down	down	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	section	section	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	collar	collar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	24	aux	_	_
24	plaiting	plait	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	conj	_	_
28	hard	hard	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	27	advmod	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
31	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	lemme	lemme	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
36	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
37	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	36	iobj	_	_
38	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
39	der	d	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	40	amod	_	_
40	ai	ai	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	46	advmod	_	_
42	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	43	det	_	_
43	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obl:unmarked	_	_
44	fer	f	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	45	amod	_	_
45	ter	ter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	nsubj	_	_
46	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	36	advcl	_	_
47	tattlers	tattler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obj	_	_
48	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	compound	_	_
49	tailb'arers	tailb'arer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	nsubj	_	_
50	turn	turn	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	46	conj	_	_
51	out	out	ADP	RP	_	50	compound:prt	_	_
52	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | Lemme | dis | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient dis=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **lay down** | gerund |  | the section of horse collar |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent section=Result |
| 4 | **plait** | past · perfect · progressive | man | horse collar *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent collar=Patient |
| 5 | **look** | gerund |  | lemme |  |  |  | at the little boy; hard *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at boy=Theme |
| 6 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | laying | dis | you |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **not** **make** *in a quote* | present | fer ter | no way |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset tattler=Product |
| 8 | **turn out** *in a quote* | present | en tailb'arers |  |  |  |  | good *property* | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **section** |  |  | horse collar |  |  |  |  | nom section «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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