---
title: "That's what they are doing," responded a young man; "that's the way… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "That's what they are doing," responded a young man; "that's the way they make a living." Who acts: That, gwine, young man. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, V. a Confession, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, V. a Confession, sentence 2

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"That's what they are doing," responded a young man; "that's the way they make a living."

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**Who acts:** That, gwine, young man · **What happens:** be, do, respond, make · **To what, where:** way, living · **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 (That, gwine, young man), 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:pg2306:51:2
# text = "That's what they are doing," responded a young man; "that's the way they make a living."
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	nsubj	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	responded	respond	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	parataxis	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
22	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	living	living	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | That |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | present · progressive | gwine |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **respond** *speech: other* | past | a young man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | that | the way |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **make** *in a quote* | present | gwine | a living |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset living=Product |

<!-- .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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