---
title: "How was that, Uncle Remus?" asked a gentleman standing near. — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "How was that, Uncle Remus?" asked a gentleman standing near. Who acts: Uncle Remus, gentleman. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XV. the Florida Watermelon, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XV. the Florida Watermelon, sentence 5

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"How was that, Uncle Remus?" asked a gentleman standing near.

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**Who acts:** Uncle Remus, gentleman · **What happens:** be, ask, stand · **To what, where:** that, gentleman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XV. the Florida Watermelon. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Uncle Remus, gentleman), 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:pg2306:61:5
# text = "How was that, Uncle Remus?" asked a gentleman standing near.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	gentleman	gentleman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	standing	stand	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	12	acl	_	_
14	near	near	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past |  | that |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Uncle Remus |  | a gentleman |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent gentleman=Recipient |
| 3 | **stand** | gerund | a gentleman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=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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