---
title: Brer John Henry say dat I oughter subdue my rashfulness, an' I don't… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: Brer John Henry say dat I oughter subdue my rashfulness, an' I don't 'spute it, but tu'n a Mobile nigger loose in dis town, fote er July or no fote er July, an', me er him, one is got ter lan' in jail. Who acts: Brer, dat, I, oughter. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Ch
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, XXI. the Fourth of July, sentence 35

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Brer John Henry say dat I oughter subdue my rashfulness, an' I don't 'spute it, but tu'n a Mobile nigger loose in dis town, fote er July or no fote er July, an', me er him, one is got ter lan' in jail.

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**Who acts:** Brer, dat, I, oughter · **What happens:** say, subdue, not ', spute, get · **To what, where:** rashfulness, one, jail · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Brer, dat, I, oughter), 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:pg2306:67:35
# text = Brer John Henry say dat I oughter subdue my rashfulness, an' I don't 'spute it, but tu'n a Mobile nigger loose in dis town, fote er July or no fote er July, an', me er him, one is got ter lan' in jail.
1	Brer	Brer	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	Henry	Henry	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	dat	dat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	oughter	oughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	subdue	subdue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	rashfulness	rashfulness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	n't	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	'	'	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	spute	spute	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
22	tu'n	tu'n	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	26	nsubj	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	Mobile	mobile	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	nigger	nigger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
26	loose	loose	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	fote	fote	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	_
32	er	er	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod:desc	_	_
33	July	July	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	42	nsubj	_	_
34	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
35	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	36	det	_	_
36	fote	fote	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	conj	_	_
37	er	er	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
38	July	July	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	42	punct	_	_
40	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	42	det	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	',	',	PUNCT	``	_	42	punct	_	_
42	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nmod	_	_
43	er	er	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
44	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
46	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	48	nsubj	_	_
47	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux:pass	_	_
48	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	parataxis	_	_
49	ter	ter	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	lan	lan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	50	punct	_	_
52	in	in	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
53	jail	jail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | Brer |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **subdue** | infinitive | dat | my rashfulness and a ' spute |  |  |  |  | vn subjugate-42.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rashfulness=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **'** | present · do-support | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **spute** |  | oughter |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **get** | present · passive |  | one |  | jail |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary lan=Theme |

<!-- .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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