---
title: A colony of tree-frogs somewhere in the distance were treating their… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: A colony of tree-frogs somewhere in the distance were treating their neighbors to a serenade, but to the little boy it sounded like a chorus of lost and long- forgotten whistlers. Who acts: colony. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXXI. a Plantation Wit
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXI. a Plantation Witch, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A colony of tree-frogs somewhere in the distance were treating their neighbors to a serenade, but to the little boy it sounded like a chorus of lost and long- forgotten whistlers.

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**Who acts:** colony · **What happens:** treat, sound, lose, forget · **To what, where:** neighbors, chorus

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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 (colony), 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:pg2306:34:7
# text = A colony of tree-frogs somewhere in the distance were treating their neighbors to a serenade, but to the little boy it sounded like a chorus of lost and long- forgotten whistlers.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	colony	colony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
7	somewhere	somewhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	10	advmod	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	distance	distance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	treating	treat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
13	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	neighbors	neighbor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	serenade	serenade	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	sounded	sound	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
26	like	like	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	chorus	chorus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
30	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
32	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	_
34	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	amod	_	_
35	whistlers	whistler	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **treat** | past · progressive | a colony of tree frogs in the distance | frogs's neighbors |  |  |  | to a serenade | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent neighbor=Theme to serenade=be' |
| 2 | **sound** | past | colony |  |  |  |  | to the little boy; like a chorus and forgotten whistlers | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ PP.experiencer»: agent=Stimulus to boy=Experiencer |
| 3 | **lose** | participle |  | a chorus and forgotten whistlers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **forget** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | 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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