---
title: The Savannah negro here gave utterance to a loud, contemptuous laugh… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: The Savannah negro here gave utterance to a loud, contemptuous laugh, and began to fumble somewhat ostentatiously with a big brass watch-chain. Who acts: Savannah negro. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, III. Uncle Remus and the Savannah Darkey, with its
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, III. Uncle Remus and the Savannah Darkey, sentence 32

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The Savannah negro here gave utterance to a loud, contemptuous laugh, and began to fumble somewhat ostentatiously with a big brass watch-chain.

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**Who acts:** Savannah negro · **What happens:** give, begin, fumble · **To what, where:** utterance, loud contemptuous laugh

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, III. Uncle Remus and the Savannah Darkey. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Savannah negro), 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:pg2306:49:32
# text = The Savannah negro here gave utterance to a loud, contemptuous laugh, and began to fumble somewhat ostentatiously with a big brass watch-chain.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Savannah	Savannah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	negro	negro	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
5	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	utterance	utterance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
9	loud	loud	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	contemptuous	contemptuous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	laugh	laugh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	fumble	fumble	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	somewhat	somewhat	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	ostentatiously	ostentatiously	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
22	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
23	brass	brass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
24	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	chain	chain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | the Savannah negro | utterance | a loud contemptuous laugh |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent utterance=Theme to laugh=Recipient |
| 2 | **begin** | past | the Savannah negro *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **fumble** | to-infinitive | the Savannah negro *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with a big brass watch chain; ostentatiously *property* | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location»: agent=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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