---
title: "Did he kill himself, Uncle Remus?" the little boy asked, with a cur… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Did he kill himself, Uncle Remus?" the little boy asked, with a curious air of concern. Who acts: Remus, little boy. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXXIV. the Sad Fate of Mr. Fox, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXXIV. the Sad Fate of Mr. Fox, sentence 3

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"Did he kill himself, Uncle Remus?" the little boy asked, with a curious air of concern.

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**Who acts:** Remus, little boy · **What happens:** kill, ask · **To what, where:** Remus · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXXIV. the Sad Fate of Mr. Fox. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Remus, 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:pg2306:37:3
# text = "Did he kill himself, Uncle Remus?" the little boy asked, with a curious air of concern.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	ccomp	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	curious	curious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	concern	concern	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **kill** *in a quote* | past · do-support | Remus | Remus |  |  |  | Uncle Remus *obl* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the little boy |  |  |  |  | with a curious air of concern | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |

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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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