---
title: While they were thus engaged, Uncle Remus came around the corner of… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: While they were thus engaged, Uncle Remus came around the corner of the house, talking to himself. Who acts: Uncle. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, A Story of the War, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, A Story of the War, sentence 33

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While they were thus engaged, Uncle Remus came around the corner of the house, talking to himself.

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**Who acts:** Uncle · **What happens:** engage, come, talk · **To what, where:** outlines, corner, Uncle

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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 (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:pg2306:46:33
# text = While they were thus engaged, Uncle Remus came around the corner of the house, talking to himself.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	flat	_	_
9	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	around	around	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	talking	talk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **engage** | past · passive |  | outlines *= outline* |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **come** | past | Uncle |  |  | the corner of the house |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme around corner=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **talk** | gerund | Uncle *not said here* |  | Uncle |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to himself=Co-Agent |

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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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