---
title: She took advantage of the opportunity to study the old negro's face… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: She took advantage of the opportunity to study the old negro's face closely, her natural curiosity considerably sharpened by a knowledge of the fact that Uncle Remus had played an important part in her brother's history. Who acts: Huntingdon, knowledge, Uncle. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs a
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, A Story of the War, sentence 21

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She took advantage of the opportunity to study the old negro's face closely, her natural curiosity considerably sharpened by a knowledge of the fact that Uncle Remus had played an important part in her brother's history.

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**Who acts:** Huntingdon, knowledge, Uncle · **What happens:** take, study, sharpen, play · **To what, where:** advantage, face, natural curiosity, important part, history

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, A Story of the War. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Huntingdon, knowledge, Uncle), 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:pg2306:46:21
# text = She took advantage of the opportunity to study the old negro's face closely, her natural curiosity considerably sharpened by a knowledge of the fact that Uncle Remus had played an important part in her brother's history.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	advantage	advantage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	study	study	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	negro	negro	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	's	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
14	closely	closely	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
17	natural	natural	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	curiosity	curiosity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
19	considerably	considerably	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	sharpened	sharpen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	fact	fact	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
28	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
29	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	flat	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	played	play	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	26	acl	_	_
32	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	important	important	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
35	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
36	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	's	's	PART	POS	_	37	case	_	_
39	history	history	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Huntingdon | advantage of the opportunity |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent advantage=Theme |
| 2 | **study** | to-infinitive | Huntingdon *not said here* | the old negro's face |  |  |  | closely *property* | vn learn-14-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent face=Topic |
| 3 | **sharpen** | participle · passive | a knowledge of the fact | Huntingdon's natural curiosity |  |  |  | considerably *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 4 | **play** | past · perfect | Uncle | a important part |  | Huntingdon's brother's history |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent part=Theme |

<!-- .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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