---
title: "Are they all that way just because the old Rabbit lost his tail in… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Are they all that way just because the old Rabbit lost his tail in the creek?" asked the little boy. Who acts: woods, old Rabbit, little boy. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXV. How Mr. Rabbit Lost His Fine Bushy Tail, with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXV. How Mr. Rabbit Lost His Fine Bushy Tail, sentence 30

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"Are they all that way just because the old Rabbit lost his tail in the creek?" asked the little boy.

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**Who acts:** woods, old Rabbit, little boy · **What happens:** be, lose, ask · **To what, where:** way, tail, creek · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXV. How Mr. Rabbit Lost His Fine Bushy Tail. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woods, old Rabbit, 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:pg2306:28:30
# text = "Are they all that way just because the old Rabbit lost his tail in the creek?" asked the little boy.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
5	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	ccomp	_	_
7	just	just	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
8	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	creek	creek	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
20	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | woods *= wood* | all way |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lose** *in a quote* | past | the old Rabbit | Rabbit's tail |  | the creek |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Eventuality |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the little boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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