---
title: "Brer Fox he sorter gap, he did, en say he speck he better be sa'nte… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Brer Fox he sorter gap, he did, en say he speck he better be sa'nter'n on. Who acts: Brer Fox, Fox, sorter gap. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XIX. the Fate of Mr. Jack Sparrow, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XIX. the Fate of Mr. Jack Sparrow, sentence 46

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"Brer Fox he sorter gap, he did, en say he speck he better be sa'nter'n on.

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**Who acts:** Brer Fox, Fox, sorter gap · **What happens:** gap, do, say, speck, sa'nter'n on · **To what, where:** sorter gap, dey · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Brer Fox, Fox, sorter gap), 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:pg2306:22:46
# text = "Brer Fox he sorter gap, he did, en say he speck he better be sa'nter'n on.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	Fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	sorter	sorter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	gap	gap	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
12	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	speck	speck	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	xcomp	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	sa'nter'n	sa'nter'n	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	csubj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gap** *in a quote* |  | Brer Fox |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | past | Fox | sorter gap and en *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gap=Eventuality |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | sorter gap and en |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **speck** *in a quote* | infinitive | Fox | dey |  |  |  | good *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **sa'nter'n on** *in a quote* | infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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