---
title: "Didn't the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the litt… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Didn't the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening. Who acts: little boy. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, II. the Wonderful Tar Baby Story, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, II. the Wonderful Tar Baby Story, sentence 1

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"Didn't the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening.

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**Who acts:** little boy · **What happens:** not catch, ask · **To what, where:** rabbit · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, II. the Wonderful Tar Baby Story. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg2306:5:1
# text = "Didn't the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	catch	catch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **catch** *in a quote* | past · do-support |  | the rabbit |  |  |  | Uncle Remus *obl* | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=Theme |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the little boy |  |  |  | evening |  | 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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