---
title: "Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. Who acts: Brer. 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 11

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"Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'.

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**Who acts:** Brer · **What happens:** wink, lay · **To what, where:** eye, en

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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 (Brer), 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:pg2306:5:11
# text = "Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
3	Fox	Fox	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	wink	wink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl:relcl	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	slow	slow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
12	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	low	low	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	de	de	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Tar	Tar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Baby	Baby	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	ai	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	sayin	sayin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	_
26	nuthin	nuthin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wink** *in a quote* | infinitive | Brer | Brer's eye |  |  |  | slow *property* | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
| 2 | **lay** *in a quote* | present | Brer and en | en de Tar and Baby |  |  |  | low *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: 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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