---
title: "'Dat's a mighty likely tale,' sezee, 'w'en Mr. Dog ain't mo'n tech… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "'Dat's a mighty likely tale,' sezee, 'w'en Mr. Dog ain't mo'n tech you 'fo' you keel over, en lay dar stiff,' sezee. Who acts: Dat, you, en. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, III. Why Mr. Possum Loves Peace, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, III. Why Mr. Possum Loves Peace, sentence 36

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
"'Dat's a mighty likely tale,' sezee, 'w'en Mr. Dog ain't mo'n tech you 'fo' you keel over, en lay dar stiff,' sezee.

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**Who acts:** Dat, you, en · **What happens:** be, tech, keel over, lie · **To what, where:** mighty likely tale, you, sezee

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, III. Why Mr. Possum Loves Peace. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dat, you, en), 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:pg2306:6:36
# text = "'Dat's a mighty likely tale,' sezee, 'w'en Mr. Dog ain't mo'n tech you 'fo' you keel over, en lay dar stiff,' sezee.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	Dat	Dat	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	's	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	likely	likely	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
11	sezee	sezee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	w'en	w'en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
15	Mr.	Mr.	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nmod:desc	_	_
16	Dog	Dog	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	appos	_	_
17	ai	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Vrnc|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
19	mo'n	mo'n	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	tech	tech	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	fo	for	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	26	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	26	punct	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	keel	keel	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
27	over	over	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	en	en	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	parataxis	_	_
31	dar	dar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	stiff	stiff	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	35	punct	_	_
35	sezee	sezee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | Dat | a mighty likely tale and sezee and w'en |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tech** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **keel over** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  | over *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **lie** *in a quote* | past | en | sezee |  |  |  | stiff *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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