---
title: The next time the little boy got permission to call upon Uncle Remus… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: The next time the little boy got permission to call upon Uncle Remus, the old man was sitting in his door, with his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands, and he appeared to be in great trouble. " Who acts: little boy, permission, old man, boy. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs an
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXI. a Plantation Witch, sentence 1

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The next time the little boy got permission to call upon Uncle Remus, the old man was sitting in his door, with his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands, and he appeared to be in great trouble. "

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**Who acts:** little boy, permission, old man, boy · **What happens:** get, call, sit, bury, appear, be · **To what, where:** permission, door, face, hands, great trouble · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXXI. a Plantation Witch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little boy, permission, old man, boy), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2306:34:1
# text = The next time the little boy got permission to call upon Uncle Remus, the old man was sitting in his door, with his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands, and he appeared to be in great trouble. "
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	permission	permission	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	call	call	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
11	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	elbows	elbow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	knees	knee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	conj	_	_
33	buried	bury	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	32	acl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
40	appeared	appear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
41	to	to	PART	TO	_	45	mark	_	_
42	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	cop	_	_
43	in	in	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
45	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	45	punct	_	_
47	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	45	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | the little boy | permission |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | to-infinitive | permission *not said here* |  |  |  |  | upon Uncle Remus | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **sit** | past · progressive | the old man |  |  | man's door |  | with man's elbows on man's knees and man's face | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in door=Location |
| 4 | **bury** | participle |  | man's face *not said here* |  | man's hands |  |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in hand=Destination |
| 5 | **appear** | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **is** | to-infinitive | boy *not said here* |  |  | great trouble |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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