---
title: The little boy seemed to be very much interested in this new account… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: The little boy seemed to be very much interested in this new account of the origin of races, and he made some further inquiries, which elicited from Uncle Remus the following additional particulars: Who acts: little boy, boy, further inquiries. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/36/19/)

<!-- 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/) / [XXXIII. Why the Negro Is Black](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/36/) / 19

# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXIII. Why the Negro Is Black, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The little boy seemed to be very much interested in this new account of the origin of races, and he made some further inquiries, which elicited from Uncle Remus the following additional particulars:

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** little boy, boy, further inquiries · **What happens:** seem, be, make, elicit, follow, account · **To what, where:** new account, further inquiries, Uncle Remus, additional particulars, origin

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (little boy, boy, further inquiries), 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:pg2306:36:19
# text = The little boy seemed to be very much interested in this new account of the origin of races, and he made some further inquiries, which elicited from Uncle Remus the following additional particulars:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	much	much	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	interested	interested	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	13	det	_	_
12	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	origin	origin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	races	race	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	25	det	_	_
24	further	further	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	inquiries	inquiry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	28	nsubj	_	_
28	elicited	elicit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	acl:relcl	_	_
29	from	from	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	following	follow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	_
34	additional	additional	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	particulars	particular	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | past | the little boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | the little boy *not said here* |  |  | this new account of the origin of races |  | interested *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | past | boy | some further inquiries |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent inquiry=Product |
| 4 | **elicit** | past | some further inquiries |  |  | Uncle Remus |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition |
| 5 | **follow** | gerund | some further inquiries *not said here* | additional particulars |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent particular=Theme |
| 6 | **account** |  |  | the origin of races |  |  |  |  | nom account «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/36/18/)
- next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/36/20/)
- ↑ back to [XXXIII. Why the Negro Is Black](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/36/)