---
title: Charley laughed, and said he would let the old man off if he would t… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Charley laughed, and said he would let the old man off if he would treat to a watermelon. Who acts: Charley. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XVI. Uncle Remus Preaches to a Convert, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XVI. Uncle Remus Preaches to a Convert, sentence 29

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Charley laughed, and said he would let the old man off if he would treat to a watermelon.

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**Who acts:** Charley · **What happens:** laugh, say, let, treat · **To what, where:** old man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XVI. Uncle Remus Preaches to a Convert. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Charley), 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:pg2306:62:29
# text = Charley laughed, and said he would let the old man off if he would treat to a watermelon.
1	Charley	Charley	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	ccomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	off	off	ADP	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	treat	treat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	watermelon	watermelon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** | past | Charley |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Charley *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **let** | would | Charley | the old man |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 4 | **treat** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | Charley |  |  |  |  | to a watermelon | vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent to watermelon=be' |

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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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