---
title: It soothed him, however, to hear the strong, musical voice of his sa… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: It soothed him, however, to hear the strong, musical voice of his sable patron, not very far away, tenderly contending with a lusty tune; and to this accompaniment the little boy dropped asleep: Who acts: child, little boy. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harr
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXI. a Plantation Witch, sentence 61

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It soothed him, however, to hear the strong, musical voice of his sable patron, not very far away, tenderly contending with a lusty tune; and to this accompaniment the little boy dropped asleep:

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**Who acts:** child, little boy · **What happens:** soothe, hear, contend, drop · **To what, where:** en, strong musical voice, accompaniment

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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 (child, little boy), 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:pg2306:34:61
# text = It soothed him, however, to hear the strong, musical voice of his sable patron, not very far away, tenderly contending with a lusty tune; and to this accompaniment the little boy dropped asleep:
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	soothed	soothe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	however	however	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
10	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	musical	musical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	sable	sable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	patron	patron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
20	very	very	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
22	away	away	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	tenderly	tenderly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
25	contending	contend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	lusty	lusty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	tune	tune	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	34	det	_	_
34	accompaniment	accompaniment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	nsubj	_	_
38	dropped	drop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
39	asleep	asleep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **soothe** | past | child | en |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer |
| 2 | **hear** | to-infinitive | child *not said here* | the strong musical voice of en's sable patron |  |  |  | however *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer voice=Stimulus |
| 3 | **contend** | gerund | child *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a lusty tune | vn battle-36.4 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with tune=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **drop** | past | the little boy |  |  | this accompaniment |  | asleep *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to accompaniment=Trajectory |

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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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