---
title: I'm a mighty long-sufferin' nigger, but he hadn't no mo'n totch me '… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: I'm a mighty long-sufferin' nigger, but he hadn't no mo'n totch me 'fo' I flung dese yer bones in his face." Who acts: I, Ellick. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXI. the Fourth of July, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXI. the Fourth of July, sentence 28

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I'm a mighty long-sufferin' nigger, but he hadn't no mo'n totch me 'fo' I flung dese yer bones in his face."

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**Who acts:** I, Ellick · **What happens:** be, have, fling · **To what, where:** mighty nigger, mo'n totch, dese yer bones, face

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, XXI. the Fourth of July. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Ellick), 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:pg2306:67:28
# text = I'm a mighty long-sufferin' nigger, but he hadn't no mo'n totch me 'fo' I flung dese yer bones in his face."
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	'm	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
4	mighty	mighty	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
5	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	sufferin	sufferin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	'	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	nigger	nigger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
15	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	17	det	_	_
16	mo'n	mo'n	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	totch	totch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	goeswith	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	fo	for	ADP	IN	Abbr=Yes	23	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	flung	fling	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
24	dese	dese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
25	yer	y	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	26	amod	_	_
26	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | I | long sufferin's mighty nigger |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | Ellick | no mo'n totch |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent totch=Patient |
| 3 | **fling** | past | I | dese yer bones |  | Ellick's face |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent bone=Theme in face=Destination |

<!-- .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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