---
title: "ONE time," said Uncle Remus, whetting his knife slowly and thoughtf… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "ONE time," said Uncle Remus, whetting his knife slowly and thoughtfully on the palm of his hand, and gazing reflectively in the fire--"one time Brer Wolf--" Who acts: Uncle Remus. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XX. How Mr. Rabbit Saved His Meat, with
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XX. How Mr. Rabbit Saved His Meat, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"ONE time," said Uncle Remus, whetting his knife slowly and thoughtfully on the palm of his hand, and gazing reflectively in the fire--"one time Brer Wolf--"

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**Who acts:** Uncle Remus · **What happens:** say, whet, gaze · **To what, where:** knife, palm · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XX. How Mr. Rabbit Saved His Meat. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Uncle Remus), 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:pg2306:23:1
# text = "ONE time," said Uncle Remus, whetting his knife slowly and thoughtfully on the palm of his hand, and gazing reflectively in the fire--"one time Brer Wolf--"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	ONE	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nummod	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	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	whetting	whet	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	slowly	slowly	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	thoughtfully	thoughtfully	ADV	RB	_	13	conj	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	gazing	gaze	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
25	reflectively	reflectively	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	32	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	nummod	_	_
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
33	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	appos	_	_
34	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Uncle Remus |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **whet** | gerund | Uncle Remus *not said here* | Remus's knife |  | the palm of Remus's hand |  | slowly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **gaze** | gerund | Uncle Remus *not said here* |  |  |  | time | in the fire; reflectively *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in fire=Theme |

<!-- .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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