---
title: Brer Rabbit, he say he de swiffes'; but Brer Tarrypin, he rock long… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Brer Rabbit, he say he de swiffes'; but Brer Tarrypin, he rock long in de cheer en watch de 'lasses. Who acts: Brer, dey. 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 9

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Brer Rabbit, he say he de swiffes'; but Brer Tarrypin, he rock long in de cheer en watch de 'lasses.

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**Who acts:** Brer, dey · **What happens:** say, de, rock · **To what, where:** swiffes · **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 (Brer, 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:pg2306:29:9
# text = Brer Rabbit, he say he de swiffes'; but Brer Tarrypin, he rock long in de cheer en watch de 'lasses.
1	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	de	de	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
8	swiffes	swiffe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	'	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	Tarrypin	Tarrypin	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	rock	rock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	_
17	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
19	de	de	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
20	cheer	cheer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	de	de	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
24	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	lasses	lass	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Brer |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **de** | past | dey | swiffes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **rock** |  | dey |  |  |  |  |  | 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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