---
title: "WHAT makes you look so lonesome, Brer Remus?" asked a well- dressed… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "WHAT makes you look so lonesome, Brer Remus?" asked a well- dressed negro, as the old man came shuffling down the street by James's corner yesterday. Who acts: you, dressed negro, old man. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XX. the Old Man's Troubles, wi
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XX. the Old Man's Troubles, sentence 1

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"WHAT makes you look so lonesome, Brer Remus?" asked a well- dressed negro, as the old man came shuffling down the street by James's corner yesterday.

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**Who acts:** you, dressed negro, old man · **What happens:** make, look, ask, dress, come, shuffle · **To what, where:** you, street · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XX. the Old Man's Troubles. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, dressed negro, old man), 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:pg2306:66:1
# text = "WHAT makes you look so lonesome, Brer Remus?" asked a well- dressed negro, as the old man came shuffling down the street by James's corner yesterday.
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	WHAT	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
3	makes	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	lonesome	lonesome	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	Remus	Remus	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
13	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
15	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	_
17	dressed	dress	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	amod	_	_
18	negro	negro	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
25	shuffling	shuffle	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
26	down	down	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	street	street	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	by	by	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	James	James	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	's	's	PART	POS	_	30	case	_	_
32	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
33	yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** *in a quote* | present |  | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | so lonesome | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | a dressed negro |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **dress** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **come** | past | the old man |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **shuffle** | gerund | the old man *not said here* |  |  | the street | yesterday | by James's corner | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme down street=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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