---
title: "DERE wuz nudder man dat sorter play it sharp on Brer Rabbit," said… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "DERE wuz nudder man dat sorter play it sharp on Brer Rabbit," said Uncle Remus, as, by some mysterious process, he twisted a hog's bristle into the end of a piece of thread--an operation which the little boy watched with great interest. " Who acts: nudder man, Uncle Remus, Remus, little boy. A sent
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXI. Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match Again, sentence 1

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"DERE wuz nudder man dat sorter play it sharp on Brer Rabbit," said Uncle Remus, as, by some mysterious process, he twisted a hog's bristle into the end of a piece of thread--an operation which the little boy watched with great interest. "

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**Who acts:** nudder man, Uncle Remus, Remus, little boy · **What happens:** play, say, twist, watch · **To what, where:** sorter, Brer, bristle, end, operation · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXI. Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match Again. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (nudder man, Uncle Remus, Remus, little boy), 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:pg2306:24:1
# text = "DERE wuz nudder man dat sorter play it sharp on Brer Rabbit," said Uncle Remus, as, by some mysterious process, he twisted a hog's bristle into the end of a piece of thread--an operation which the little boy watched with great interest. "
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	DERE	DERE	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	wuz	wuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	nudder	nudder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	dat	dat	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	sorter	sorter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	play	play	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	sharp	sharp	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
13	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
17	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
24	mysterious	mysterious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	process	process	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	twisted	twist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	hog	hog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	's	's	PART	POS	_	30	case	_	_
32	bristle	bristle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
33	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
36	of	of	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	_
39	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	thread	thread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	operation	operation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	appos	_	_
44	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	48	obj	_	_
45	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
46	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	47	amod	_	_
47	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
48	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	43	acl:relcl	_	_
49	with	with	ADP	IN	_	51	case	_	_
50	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	51	amod	_	_
51	interest	interest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
53	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **play** *in a quote* | present | nudder man dat sorter | sorter |  |  |  | sharp *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent it=Theme clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Uncle Remus |  |  | Brer |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **twist** | past | Remus | a hog's bristle |  |  | into the end of a piece of thread |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent bristle=Theme into end=Trajectory |
| 4 | **watch** | past | the little boy | a operation |  |  |  | with great interest | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=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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