---
title: Wen eh woice biggin fuh fail um, an dist befo eh dead, eh say: “Me f… — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Wen eh woice biggin fuh fail um, an dist befo eh dead, eh say: “Me fren, who gwine tek me wife wen de breaf leff dis yer body?” Who acts: Me, fren. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 11, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 11, sentence 145

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Wen eh woice biggin fuh fail um, an dist befo eh dead, eh say: “Me fren, who gwine tek me wife wen de breaf leff dis yer body?”

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**Who acts:** Me, fren · **What happens:** say, fren, tek, dis · **To what, where:** fuh fail um · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 11. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Me, fren), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg76586:11:145
# text = Wen eh woice biggin fuh fail um, an dist befo eh dead, eh say: “Me fren, who gwine tek me wife wen de breaf leff dis yer body?”
1	Wen	Wen	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
2	eh	eh	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	7	nsubj	_	_
3	woice	woice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	biggin	biggin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	fuh	fuh	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
6	fail	fail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	um	um	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	dist	dist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	befo	befo	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	eh	eh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
13	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	eh	eh	INTJ	UH	_	16	discourse	_	_
16	say	say	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	Me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	fren	fren	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	24	nsubj	_	_
23	gwine	gwine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	tek	tek	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	goeswith	_	_
26	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	wen	wen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
28	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	27	flat:foreign	_	_
29	breaf	breaf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
30	leff	leff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	ccomp	_	_
32	yer	yer	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **fren** *in a quote* |  | Me |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **tek** *in a quote* |  | fren |  |  |  |  | me *goeswith* | tree rules |
| 4 | **dis** *in a quote* |  | fren |  |  |  |  | wife wen *nsubj*; yer's body *conj* | tree rules |

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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:** «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Project Gutenberg book 76586 (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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