---
title: "The old man's mind is wandering," said the society editor, smoothin… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "The old man's mind is wandering," said the society editor, smoothing the wrinkles out of his lavender kids. Who acts: mind, society editor, old man. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, VIII. Race Improvement, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, VIII. Race Improvement, sentence 5

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"The old man's mind is wandering," said the society editor, smoothing the wrinkles out of his lavender kids.

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**Who acts:** mind, society editor, old man · **What happens:** wonder, say, smooth, mind · **To what, where:** wrinkles · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, VIII. Race Improvement. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mind, society editor, old 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:pg2306:54:5
# text = "The old man's mind is wandering," said the society editor, smoothing the wrinkles out of his lavender kids.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	wandering	wonder	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	society	society	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	_
14	editor	editor	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	smoothing	smooth	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	wrinkles	wrinkle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	lavender	lavender	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	kids	kid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wonder** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | present · progressive | the old man's mind |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the society editor |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **smooth** | gerund | the society editor *not said here* | the wrinkles |  |  |  | out mind's lavender kids | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent wrinkle=Theme out kid=Source |
| 4 | **mind** *in a quote* |  | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=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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