---
title: Squinch-owl holler eve'y time he see a witch, en w'en you hear de do… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Squinch-owl holler eve'y time he see a witch, en w'en you hear de dog howlin' in de middle er de night, one un um's mighty ap' ter be prowlin' 'roun'. Who acts: dey, you. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXXI. a Plantation Witch, with its dependency tre
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/34/30/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/) / [XXXI. a Plantation Witch](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/34/) / 30

# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXI. a Plantation Witch, sentence 30

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Squinch-owl holler eve'y time he see a witch, en w'en you hear de dog howlin' in de middle er de night, one un um's mighty ap' ter be prowlin' 'roun'.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** dey, you · **What happens:** see, hear, be · **To what, where:** witch, de middle er, de dog howlin, ter prowlin

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (dey, you), 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:pg2306:34:30
# text = Squinch-owl holler eve'y time he see a witch, en w'en you hear de dog howlin' in de middle er de night, one un um's mighty ap' ter be prowlin' 'roun'.
1	Squinch	squinch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	1	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	holler	holler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	eve'y	eve'y	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	w'en	w'en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	_
14	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	hear	hear	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	18	compound	_	_
17	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	howlin	howlin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	de	de	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
22	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	er	er	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
24	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	25	compound	_	_
25	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
28	un	un	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	um	um	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	's	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	ap	AP	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	36	punct	_	_
34	ter	ter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
35	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	cop	_	_
36	prowlin	prowlin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	36	punct	_	_
38	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	roun	roun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	39	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | present | dey | a witch |  | de middle er | time |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer witch=Stimulus |
| 2 | **hear** | present | you | de dog howlin |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer howlin=Stimulus |
| 3 | **is a** | infinitive | dey *not said here* | ter prowlin |  |  |  |  | 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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/34/29/)
- next →: [sentence 31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/34/31/)
- ↑ back to [XXXI. a Plantation Witch](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/34/)