---
title: The Savannah negro went off after his rice-birds, while Uncle Remus… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: The Savannah negro went off after his rice-birds, while Uncle Remus leaned up against the wall and laughed until he was in imminent danger of falling down from sheer exhaustion. Who acts: Savannah negro, Uncle, imminent danger. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler 
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, III. Uncle Remus and the Savannah Darkey, sentence 39

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The Savannah negro went off after his rice-birds, while Uncle Remus leaned up against the wall and laughed until he was in imminent danger of falling down from sheer exhaustion.

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**Who acts:** Savannah negro, Uncle, imminent danger · **What happens:** go off, learn up, laugh, be, fall down · **To what, where:** imminent danger, sheer exhaustion

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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, Uncle, imminent danger), 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:pg2306:49:39
# text = The Savannah negro went off after his rice-birds, while Uncle Remus leaned up against the wall and laughed until he was in imminent danger of falling down from sheer exhaustion.
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	4	nsubj	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	after	after	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
8	rice	rice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	flat	_	_
15	leaned	learn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
16	up	up	ADP	RP	_	15	compound:prt	_	_
17	against	against	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
25	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	imminent	imminent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	ccomp	_	_
28	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
29	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	27	acl	_	_
30	down	down	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	sheer	sheer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	exhaustion	exhaustion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go off** | past | the Savannah negro |  |  |  | after deze's rice birds |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **learn up** | past | Uncle |  |  |  |  | against the wall | vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | the Savannah negro *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | Uncle |  |  | imminent danger |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **fall down** | gerund | imminent danger *not said here* |  |  | sheer exhaustion |  | down *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from exhaustion=Initial\_Location |

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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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