---
title: In dem days," continued the old man, observing a look of incredulity… — Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings · tree and pragmatics
description: In dem days," continued the old man, observing a look of incredulity on the little boy's face, "in dem days creeturs had lots mo' sense dan dey got now; let 'lone dat, dey had sense same like folks. Who acts: old man, creeturs, dey. A sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chan
---

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# Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, V. the Story of the Deluge and How It Came About, sentence 2

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In dem days," continued the old man, observing a look of incredulity on the little boy's face, "in dem days creeturs had lots mo' sense dan dey got now; let 'lone dat, dey had sense same like folks.

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**Who acts:** old man, creeturs, dey · **What happens:** continue, observe, have, get, let · **To what, where:** look, face, mo sense, dat, sense

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This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, V. the Story of the Deluge and How It Came About. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old man, creeturs, dey), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg2306:357`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg2306:8:2
# text = In dem days," continued the old man, observing a look of incredulity on the little boy's face, "in dem days creeturs had lots mo' sense dan dey got now; let 'lone dat, dey had sense same like folks.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	dem	dem	DET	DT	_	3	det	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	continued	continue	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	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	observing	observe	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	look	look	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	incredulity	incredulity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod:poss	_	_
20	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
21	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
23	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	dem	dem	DET	DT	_	26	det	_	_
26	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
27	creeturs	creetur	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nsubj	_	_
28	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
29	lots	lot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl:unmarked	_	_
30	mo	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	32	amod	_	_
31	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
32	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
33	dan	than	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
34	dey	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	advcl	_	_
36	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	35	advmod	_	_
37	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
38	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
39	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	40	punct	_	_
40	lone	alone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	38	xcomp	_	_
41	dat	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	38	obj	_	_
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
43	dey	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
44	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	parataxis	_	_
45	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	obj	_	_
46	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	amod	_	_
47	like	like	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	folks	folk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	46	obl	_	_
49	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **continue** *in a quote* | past | the old man |  |  |  | day |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **observe** *in a quote* | gerund | the old man *not said here* | a look of incredulity |  | the little boy's face |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent look=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | past | creeturs | mo sense |  |  | day |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Patient |
| 4 | **get** | past | dey *= they* |  |  |  | now |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **let** | infinitive |  | dat |  |  |  | alone *property* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Theme |
| 6 | **have** | past | dey *= they* | sense |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Patient |

<!-- .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:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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