---
title: John squirmed and indulged in heart-rending groans. — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: John squirmed and indulged in heart-rending groans. Who acts: John. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 12, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 12, sentence 131

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John squirmed and indulged in heart-rending groans.

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**Who acts:** John · **What happens:** squirm, indulge, rend · **To what, where:** rending groans

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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 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (John), 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:pg76586:12:131
# text = John squirmed and indulged in heart-rending groans.
1	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	squirmed	squirm	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	indulged	indulge	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	rending	rend	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	amod	_	_
9	groans	groan	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **squirm** | past | John |  |  |  |  |  | vn body\_internal\_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **indulge** | past | John *not said here* |  |  | rending groans |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **rend** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | heart *compound* | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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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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