---
title: Therefore, instead of attempting to justify himself, he pleaded guil… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Therefore, instead of attempting to justify himself, he pleaded guilty, and promised that he would never do so any more. Who acts: boy. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXVII. Why Mr. Possum Has No Hair on His Tail, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXVII. Why Mr. Possum Has No Hair on His Tail, sentence 14

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Therefore, instead of attempting to justify himself, he pleaded guilty, and promised that he would never do so any more.

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**Who acts:** boy · **What happens:** attempt, justify, plead, promise, not do · **To what, where:** boy

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXVII. Why Mr. Possum Has No Hair on His Tail. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg2306:30:14
# text = Therefore, instead of attempting to justify himself, he pleaded guilty, and promised that he would never do so any more.
1	Therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	5	mark	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	fixed	_	_
5	attempting	attempt	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	justify	justify	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	pleaded	plead	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	guilty	guilty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	any	any	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **attempt** | gerund | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **justify** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* | boy |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Topic |
| 3 | **plead** *speech: request* | past | boy |  |  |  |  | guilty, therefore *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | boy *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **not** **do** | would | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «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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