---
title: "'Tain't dat, boss:' said the old man, seeing that he was about to b… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "'Tain't dat, boss:' said the old man, seeing that he was about to be cornered; 'tain't dat. Who acts: Tai dat, 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 7

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"'Tain't dat, boss:' said the old man, seeing that he was about to be cornered; 'tain't dat.

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**Who acts:** Tai dat, man · **What happens:** say, see, be, corner · **To what, where:** dat · **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 (Tai dat, 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:pg2306:51:7
# text = "'Tain't dat, boss:' said the old man, seeing that he was about to be cornered; 'tain't dat.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	Tai	Tai	X	FW	_	5	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	dat	dat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	boss	boss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
21	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	cornered	corner	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
24	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	tai	tai	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	27	dep	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
27	dat	dat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past | Tai dat and boss | dat |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **see** *in a quote* | gerund | Tai dat and boss *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | past | man |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **corner** *in a quote* | to-infinitive · passive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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