---
title: "Fum dat day ter dis," said Uncle Remus, knocking the ashes carefull… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Fum dat day ter dis," said Uncle Remus, knocking the ashes carefully out of his pipe, "Brer Possum ain't had no ha'r on his tail, en needer do his chilluns." Who acts: day, Brer, ha'r. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXVII. Why Mr. Possum Has No Hair 
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXVII. Why Mr. Possum Has No Hair on His Tail, sentence 41

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"Fum dat day ter dis," said Uncle Remus, knocking the ashes carefully out of his pipe, "Brer Possum ain't had no ha'r on his tail, en needer do his chilluns."

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**Who acts:** day, Brer, ha'r · **What happens:** say, knock, not have, do · **To what, where:** ashes, pipe, ha'r, tail, chilluns · **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 (day, Brer, ha'r), 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:pg2306:30:41
# text = "Fum dat day ter dis," said Uncle Remus, knocking the ashes carefully out of his pipe, "Brer Possum ain't had no ha'r on his tail, en needer do his chilluns."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Fum	Fum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	dat	that	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	ter	ter	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	knocking	knock	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
17	out	out	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	pipe	pipe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
22	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
24	Possum	Possum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	flat	_	_
25	ai	ai	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
28	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	29	det	_	_
29	ha'r	ha'r	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
34	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	needer	needer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	_
36	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
37	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	chilluns	chillun	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | that day ter dis |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **knock** | gerund | that day ter dis *not said here* | the ashes |  | Remus's pipe |  | carefully *property* | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent ash=Theme out pipe=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **not** **have** *in a quote* | past | Brer | no ha'r |  | Brer's tail and en needer |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | infinitive | no ha'r *not said here* | Brer's chilluns |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chillun=Eventuality |

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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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