---
title: He thought Uncle Remus was making him the victim of one of his jokes… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought Uncle Remus was making him the victim of one of his jokes; but the youngster was never more mistaken. Who acts: boy, Uncle Remus, youngster. 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 the pra
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXIII. Why the Negro Is Black, sentence 6

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He thought Uncle Remus was making him the victim of one of his jokes; but the youngster was never more mistaken.

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**Who acts:** boy, Uncle Remus, youngster · **What happens:** think, make, not be, joke · **To what, where:** victim, boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (boy, Uncle Remus, youngster), 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:pg2306:36:6
# text = He thought Uncle Remus was making him the victim of one of his jokes; but the youngster was never more mistaken.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	victim	victim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nmod	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	jokes	joke	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	youngster	youngster	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
20	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
21	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	22	amod	_	_
22	mistaken	mistaken	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | past · progressive | Uncle Remus | the victim of one of boy's jokes | boy |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset he=Beneficiary victim=Product |
| 3 | **not** **is** | past | the youngster |  |  |  |  | mistaken *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **joke** |  | boy |  |  |  |  |  | nom joke «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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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