---
title: Dem wuz de niggers, en down ter dis day dey ain't no w'ite 'bout a n… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Dem wuz de niggers, en down ter dis day dey ain't no w'ite 'bout a nigger 'ceppin de pa'ms er der han's en de soles er der foot." Who acts: ter day dey, en de. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXXIII. Why the Negro Is Black, with its dependency tree and
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXIII. Why the Negro Is Black, sentence 18

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Dem wuz de niggers, en down ter dis day dey ain't no w'ite 'bout a nigger 'ceppin de pa'ms er der han's en de soles er der foot."

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**Who acts:** ter day dey, en de · **What happens:** not be, sole · **To what, where:** w'ite, er

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXXIII. Why the Negro Is Black. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ter day dey, en de), 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:pg2306:36:18
# text = Dem wuz de niggers, en down ter dis day dey ain't no w'ite 'bout a nigger 'ceppin de pa'ms er der han's en de soles er der foot."
1	Dem	Dem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	wuz	wuz	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
3	de	de	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	niggers	nigger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
7	down	down	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
8	ter	ter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
9	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	dey	dey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
12	ai	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	w'ite	w'ite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	bout	bout	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	nigger	nigger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	'	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	ceppin	ceppin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
22	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	21	flat:foreign	_	_
23	pa'ms	pa'm	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	conj	_	_
24	er	er	INTJ	UH	_	30	discourse	_	_
25	der	d	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	amod	_	_
26	han	han	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	's	's	PART	POS	_	26	case	_	_
28	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	de	de	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	soles	sole	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
31	er	er	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
32	der	d	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	amod	_	_
33	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | present | ter day dey | no w'ite |  |  |  | bout a nigger's ceppin and pa'ms | tree rules |
| 2 | **sole** | present | der han's en de | er |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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