---
title: Den Brer Possum, he say whar, en Brer Rabbit, he say w'ich 'twuz ove… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Den Brer Possum, he say whar, en Brer Rabbit, he say w'ich 'twuz over at Brer B'ar's 'simmon orchard." Who acts: Den. 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 pragmatics of every cl
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXVII. Why Mr. Possum Has No Hair on His Tail, sentence 32

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Den Brer Possum, he say whar, en Brer Rabbit, he say w'ich 'twuz over at Brer B'ar's 'simmon orchard."

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**Who acts:** Den · **What happens:** say · **To what, where:** whar, w'ich, simmon orchard · **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 (Den), 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:pg2306:30:32
# text = Den Brer Possum, he say whar, en Brer Rabbit, he say w'ich 'twuz over at Brer B'ar's 'simmon orchard."
1	Den	Den	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
2	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	Possum	Possum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	whar	whar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
10	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	appos	_	_
11	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
15	w'ich	w'ich	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	twuz	twuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
18	over	over	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
20	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	B'ar	B'ar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	's	's	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	simmon	simmon	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	orchard	orchard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	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 | Den | whar and en |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent whar=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Den | w'ich and twuz |  | Brer B'ar's simmon orchard |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent w'ich=Topic |

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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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