---
title: "Well, Uncle Remus," the little boy explained, "it was lying there a… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Well, Uncle Remus," the little boy explained, "it was lying there all by itself, and I just thought I'd fetch it out to you. Who acts: Uncle, hatter. 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 tr
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXVII. Why Mr. Possum Has No Hair on His Tail, sentence 22

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Well, Uncle Remus," the little boy explained, "it was lying there all by itself, and I just thought I'd fetch it out to you.

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**Who acts:** Uncle, hatter · **What happens:** explain, lie, think, fetch out · **To what, where:** hatter, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Uncle, hatter), 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:pg2306:30:22
# text = "Well, Uncle Remus," the little boy explained, "it was lying there all by itself, and I just thought I'd fetch it out to you.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	11	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
5	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	explained	explain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
17	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	_
18	all	all	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
19	by	by	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	just	just	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	fetch	fetch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	ccomp	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	out	out	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **explain** *speech: assert* | past | Uncle |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **lie** *in a quote* | past · progressive | hatter |  |  | there |  | by hatter | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by itself=Location |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past | Uncle |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **fetch out** *in a quote* | would | Uncle | hatter | you |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |

<!-- .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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