---
title: "It's a wonder," said the little boy, after a while, "that the rope… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "It's a wonder," said the little boy, after a while, "that the rope didn't break." Who acts: mouf, wonder, rope. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXVI. Mr. Terrapin Shows His Strength, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXVI. Mr. Terrapin Shows His Strength, sentence 35

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"It's a wonder," said the little boy, after a while, "that the rope didn't break."

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**Who acts:** mouf, wonder, rope · **What happens:** be, say, not break · **To what, where:** wonder · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXVI. Mr. Terrapin Shows His Strength. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mouf, wonder, rope), 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:pg2306:29:35
# text = "It's a wonder," said the little boy, after a while, "that the rope didn't break."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wonder	wonder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	after	after	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
21	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	23	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 | mouf | a wonder |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | a wonder |  |  |  | while |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **break** *in a quote* | past · do-support | the rope |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

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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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