---
title: "UNCLE REMUS," said the little boy one evening, when he had found th… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: "UNCLE REMUS," said the little boy one evening, when he had found the old man with little or nothing to do, "did the fox kill and eat the rabbit when he caught him with the Tar-Baby?" Who acts: UNCLE REMUS, REMUS. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, IV. Ho
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, IV. How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp For Mr. Fox, sentence 1

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"UNCLE REMUS," said the little boy one evening, when he had found the old man with little or nothing to do, "did the fox kill and eat the rabbit when he caught him with the Tar-Baby?"

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**Who acts:** UNCLE REMUS, REMUS · **What happens:** say, find, do, eat, catch · **To what, where:** old man, fox kill, rabbit · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, IV. How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp For Mr. Fox. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (UNCLE REMUS, REMUS), 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:pg2306:7:1
# text = "UNCLE REMUS," said the little boy one evening, when he had found the old man with little or nothing to do, "did the fox kill and eat the rabbit when he caught him with the Tar-Baby?"
1	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	UNCLE	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	REMUS	REMUS	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	_
10	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
11	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	found	find	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	nmod	_	_
22	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	conj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	fox	fox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	kill	kill	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	38	mark	_	_
37	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
38	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	_
39	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	obj	_	_
40	with	with	ADP	IN	_	44	case	_	_
41	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
42	Tar	Tar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	44	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	42	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	Baby	Baby	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | UNCLE REMUS |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **find** | past · perfect | REMUS | the old man |  |  |  | with little | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | to-infinitive | REMUS *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **do** *in a quote* | past |  | the fox kill |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kill=Eventuality |
| 5 | **eat** *in a quote* | present |  | the rabbit |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=Patient |
| 6 | **catch** *in a quote* | past | REMUS | rabbit |  |  |  | with the Tar Baby | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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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