---
title: Buh Rabbit say: “Less we dribe um close up ter my house befo we kill… — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Buh Rabbit say: “Less we dribe um close up ter my house befo we kill um.” Who acts: Buh, we. 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 7

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Buh Rabbit say: “Less we dribe um close up ter my house befo we kill um.”

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**Who acts:** Buh, we · **What happens:** say, dribe, close up, kill · **To what, where:** 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 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Buh, we), 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:pg76586:12:7
# text = Buh Rabbit say: “Less we dribe um close up ter my house befo we kill um.”
1	Buh	Buh	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Less	less	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	8	advmod	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	dribe	dribe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
9	um	um	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	ter	ter	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	befo	befo	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	kill	kill	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
18	um	um	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	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 | Buh |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **dribe** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  |  | less *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **close up** *in a quote* | infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  | ter my house | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **kill** *in a quote* | present | we | um |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent um=Theme |

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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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