---
title: I'm fear'd fer ter say a perlite wud 'bout myself, an' I des know I… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: I'm fear'd fer ter say a perlite wud 'bout myself, an' I des know I ain't gwine 'roun' flatter'n up deze udder niggers." Who acts: I, fer ter. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XVIII. a Temperance Reformer, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XVIII. a Temperance Reformer, sentence 12

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I'm fear'd fer ter say a perlite wud 'bout myself, an' I des know I ain't gwine 'roun' flatter'n up deze udder niggers."

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**Who acts:** I, fer ter · **What happens:** be, say, know, not gwine, flatter'n up · **To what, where:** fear, perlite wud, roun · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XVIII. a Temperance Reformer. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, fer ter), 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:pg2306:64:12
# text = I'm fear'd fer ter say a perlite wud 'bout myself, an' I des know I ain't gwine 'roun' flatter'n up deze udder niggers."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	'd	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	fer	f	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	6	amod	_	_
6	ter	ter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	perlite	perlite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	wud	wud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	bout	bout	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	des	des	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	conj	_	_
20	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	ai	ai	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	23	advmod	_	_
23	gwine	gwine	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
24	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	roun	roun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	25	punct	_	_
27	flatter'n	flatter'n	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	31	amod	_	_
28	up	up	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	deze	deze	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	compound	_	_
30	udder	udder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	niggers	nigger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | I | fear |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | fer ter | a perlite wud |  |  |  | bout myself | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent wud=Topic |
| 3 | **know** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **not** **gwine** |  | I | roun and flatter'n udder niggers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **flatter'n up** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | 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.

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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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