---
title: "Why, Uncle Remus!" the little boy broke in, "I thought you said the… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Why, Uncle Remus!" the little boy broke in, "I thought you said the Rabbit scalded the Wolf to death a long time ago." Who acts: Uncle Remus, I, you, Rabbit. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XX. How Mr. Rabbit Saved His Meat, with its dependency tree a
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XX. How Mr. Rabbit Saved His Meat, sentence 2

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"Why, Uncle Remus!" the little boy broke in, "I thought you said the Rabbit scalded the Wolf to death a long time ago."

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**Who acts:** Uncle Remus, I, you, Rabbit · **What happens:** break in, think, say, scald · **To what, where:** Wolf · **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, I, you, Rabbit), 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:pg2306:23:2
# text = "Why, Uncle Remus!" the little boy broke in, "I thought you said the Rabbit scalded the Wolf to death a long time ago."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
14	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	scalded	scald	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	ccomp	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
27	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl:unmarked	_	_
29	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break in** | past | Uncle Remus |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **scald** *in a quote* | past | the Rabbit | the Wolf |  |  |  | to death *result*; ago *property* | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent wolf=Patient to death=Result |

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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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