---
title: Cunjun fokes kin tell a witch de minnit dey lays der eyes on it, but… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Cunjun fokes kin tell a witch de minnit dey lays der eyes on it, but dem w'at ain't cunjun, hit's mighty hard ter tell w'en dey see one, kaze dey might come in de 'pearunce un a cow en all kinder creeturs. Who acts: Cunjun, de minnit dey, mighty hard ter, w'en dey. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His So
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXI. a Plantation Witch, sentence 31

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Cunjun fokes kin tell a witch de minnit dey lays der eyes on it, but dem w'at ain't cunjun, hit's mighty hard ter tell w'en dey see one, kaze dey might come in de 'pearunce un a cow en all kinder creeturs.

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**Who acts:** Cunjun, de minnit dey, mighty hard ter, w'en dey, kaze dey · **What happens:** foke, tell, lay, see, come · **To what, where:** kin, witch, der eyes, w'en dey, one, de · **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 (Cunjun, de minnit dey, mighty hard ter, w'en dey), 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:pg2306:34:31
# text = Cunjun fokes kin tell a witch de minnit dey lays der eyes on it, but dem w'at ain't cunjun, hit's mighty hard ter tell w'en dey see one, kaze dey might come in de 'pearunce un a cow en all kinder creeturs.
1	Cunjun	Cunjun	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	fokes	foke	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	kin	kin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	9	compound	_	_
8	minnit	minnit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	dey	dey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	lays	lay	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
11	der	d	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	amod	_	_
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	dem	dem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	w'at	w'at	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	ai	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	cunjun	cunjun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	hit	hit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	's	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
26	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	ter	ter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
29	w'en	w'en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	dey	dey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	xcomp	_	_
32	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	kaze	kaze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	compound	_	_
35	dey	dey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj	_	_
36	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	37	aux	_	_
37	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	conj	_	_
38	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	de	de	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
40	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	42	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	pearunce	pearunce	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	compound	_	_
42	un	un	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	appos	_	_
43	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
44	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	compound	_	_
45	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	_
46	all	all	ADV	RB	_	47	advmod	_	_
47	kinder	kind	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	48	amod	_	_
48	creeturs	creetur	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	45	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **foke** | present | Cunjun | kin |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive | Cunjun *not said here* |  | a witch |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent witch=Recipient |
| 3 | **lay** | present | de minnit dey | der eyes |  | kin |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent eye=Theme on it=Destination |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | hit's mighty hard ter | w'en dey |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent dey=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **see** *not said to happen* | infinitive | w'en dey *not said here* | one |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus |
| 6 | **come** | might | kaze dey |  |  | de |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in de=Location |

<!-- .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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