---
title: "W'AT'S dis yer I see, great big niggers gwine 'lopin' 'roun' town w… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "W'AT'S dis yer I see, great big niggers gwine 'lopin' 'roun' town wid cakes 'n pies fer ter sell?" asked Uncle Remus recently, in his most scornful tone. Who acts: Uncle Remus, pies, dis. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, V. a Confession, with its depen
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, V. a Confession, sentence 1

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"W'AT'S dis yer I see, great big niggers gwine 'lopin' 'roun' town wid cakes 'n pies fer ter sell?" asked Uncle Remus recently, in his most scornful tone.

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**Who acts:** Uncle Remus, pies, dis · **What happens:** see, sell, ask, intonate · **To what, where:** scornful tone · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, V. a Confession. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Uncle Remus, pies, dis), 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:pg2306:51:1
# text = "W'AT'S dis yer I see, great big niggers gwine 'lopin' 'roun' town wid cakes 'n pies fer ter sell?" asked Uncle Remus recently, in his most scornful tone.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	W'AT	W'AT	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	'S	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	yer	y	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	see	see	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	niggers	nigger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
12	gwine	gwine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	lopin	lopin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	roun	roun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
19	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
20	wid	wid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	cakes	cake	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	'n	'n	PART	POS	_	21	case	_	_
23	pies	pie	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	appos	_	_
24	fer	f	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	25	amod	_	_
25	ter	ter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	sell	sell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	26	punct	_	_
29	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
30	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	recently	recently	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
36	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	37	advmod	_	_
37	scornful	scornful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	amod	_	_
38	tone	tone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** *in a quote* | present | Uncle Remus *= remus* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **sell** *in a quote* | infinitive | wid cakes's pies *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Uncle Remus |  |  | dis's scornful tone |  | recently *property* | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **intonate** |  | dis |  |  |  |  |  | nom tone «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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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