---
title: "Dey wuz good chilluns," continued the old man, heartily, "en ef dey… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Dey wuz good chilluns," continued the old man, heartily, "en ef dey hadn't er bin, der wuz one time w'en dey wouldn't er bin no little rabbits--na'er one. Who acts: wuz good chilluns, en ef dey, dey. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXII. a Story About
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXII. a Story About the Little Rabbits, sentence 7

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"Dey wuz good chilluns," continued the old man, heartily, "en ef dey hadn't er bin, der wuz one time w'en dey wouldn't er bin no little rabbits--na'er one.

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**Who acts:** wuz good chilluns, en ef dey, dey · **What happens:** continue, have, not er · **To what, where:** old man, er bin, bin · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXII. a Story About the Little Rabbits. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wuz good chilluns, en ef dey, dey), 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:pg2306:25:7
# text = "Dey wuz good chilluns," continued the old man, heartily, "en ef dey hadn't er bin, der wuz one time w'en dey wouldn't er bin no little rabbits--na'er one.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Dey	Dey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	wuz	wuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
4	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	chilluns	chillun	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|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	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	heartily	heartily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
17	ef	ef	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	dey	dey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	er	er	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	bin	bin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	der	d	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	amod	_	_
25	wuz	wuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	appos	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl:unmarked	_	_
28	w'en	w'en	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	flat	_	_
29	dey	dey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	32	advmod	_	_
32	er	er	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
33	bin	bin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
34	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	36	det	_	_
35	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	amod	_	_
36	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	na'er	na'er	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **continue** | past | wuz good chilluns | the old man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | past | en ef dey | er bin |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bin=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **er** *in a quote* | would | dey | bin |  |  | time |  | 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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