---
title: "Cum down ter dat, Brer Ab," said Uncle Remus, wiping his spectacles… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "Cum down ter dat, Brer Ab," said Uncle Remus, wiping his spectacles carefully, and readjusting them--"cum down ter dat, an' dey ain't nuthin' dat ain't cu'us. Who acts: Cum ter dat. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XIII. His Practical View of Things, w
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/59/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/) / [XIII. His Practical View of Things](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/59/) / 14

# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XIII. His Practical View of Things, sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"Cum down ter dat, Brer Ab," said Uncle Remus, wiping his spectacles carefully, and readjusting them--"cum down ter dat, an' dey ain't nuthin' dat ain't cu'us.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Cum ter dat · **What happens:** say, wipe, readjust down · **To what, where:** spectacles · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XIII. His Practical View of Things. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cum ter dat), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg2306:59:14
# text = "Cum down ter dat, Brer Ab," said Uncle Remus, wiping his spectacles carefully, and readjusting them--"cum down ter dat, an' dey ain't nuthin' dat ain't cu'us.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Cum	cum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
3	down	down	ADP	RP	_	2	compound:prt	_	_
4	ter	ter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	dat	dat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
8	Ab	Ab	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	wiping	wipe	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	advcl	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	spectacles	spectacle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obj	_	_
18	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	readjusting	readjust	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	cum	cum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	conj	_	_
26	down	down	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
27	ter	ter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	_
28	dat	dat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	33	punct	_	_
32	dey	dey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	compound	_	_
33	ai	ai	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	35	advmod	_	_
35	nuthin	nuthin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	35	punct	_	_
37	dat	dat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	ai	ai	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	40	advmod	_	_
40	cu'us	cu'us	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Cum ter dat |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **wipe** | gerund | Cum ter dat *not said here* | Remus's spectacles |  |  |  | carefully *property* | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent spectacle=Source |
| 3 | **readjust down** | gerund | Cum ter dat *not said here* | spectacles *= spectacle* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/59/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/59/15/)
- ↑ back to [XIII. His Practical View of Things](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/59/)