---
title: The young men about the office were inclined to chaff him, but his l… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: The young men about the office were inclined to chaff him, but his look of sullen resignation remained unchanged. Who acts: young men, look. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, VI. Uncle Remus With the Toothache, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, VI. Uncle Remus With the Toothache, sentence 3

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The young men about the office were inclined to chaff him, but his look of sullen resignation remained unchanged.

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**Who acts:** young men, look · **What happens:** be, chaff, remain · **To what, where:** Uncle

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, VI. Uncle Remus With the Toothache. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young men, look), 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:pg2306:52:3
# text = The young men about the office were inclined to chaff him, but his look of sullen resignation remained unchanged.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
4	about	about	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	office	office	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	inclined	inclined	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	chaff	chaff	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	look	look	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	sullen	sullen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	resignation	resignation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	remained	remain	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
20	unchanged	unchanged	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the young men about the office |  |  |  |  | inclined *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **chaff** | to-infinitive | the young men about the office *not said here* | Uncle |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **remain** | past | Uncle's look of sullen resignation |  |  |  |  | unchanged *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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