---
title: Uncle Remus was finishing an axe-handle, and upon these occasions it… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Uncle Remus was finishing an axe-handle, and upon these occasions it was his custom to allow the child to hold one end while he applied sand-paper to the other. Who acts: Uncle, handle, child. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXVIII. the End of Mr. Bear
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXVIII. the End of Mr. Bear, sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Uncle Remus was finishing an axe-handle, and upon these occasions it was his custom to allow the child to hold one end while he applied sand-paper to the other.

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**Who acts:** Uncle, handle, child · **What happens:** finish, be, allow, hold, apply · **To what, where:** axe handle, custom, child, one end, sand paper

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXVIII. the End of Mr. Bear. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Uncle, handle, child), 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:pg2306:31:15
# text = Uncle Remus was finishing an axe-handle, and upon these occasions it was his custom to allow the child to hold one end while he applied sand-paper to the other.
1	Uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	finishing	finish	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	handle	handle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
13	occasions	occasion	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
24	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	applied	apply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
29	sand	sand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · progressive | Uncle | a axe handle |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector handle=Eventuality |
| 2 | **is a** | past | handle | Uncle's custom |  |  |  | upon this occasions | tree rules |
| 3 | **allow** | to-infinitive | Uncle *not said here* | the child |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer child=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **hold** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the child *not said here* | one end |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent end=Theme |
| 5 | **apply** | past | Uncle | sand paper |  |  |  | to the other | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent paper=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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