---
title: Dem dont tetch de groun wid dem foot, but dem sorter dis skim pon to… — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Dem dont tetch de groun wid dem foot, but dem sorter dis skim pon topper de grass. Who acts: sorter dis. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 14, 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 14, sentence 3

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Dem dont tetch de groun wid dem foot, but dem sorter dis skim pon topper de grass.

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**Who acts:** sorter dis · **What happens:** topper · **To what, where:** Dem dont tetch

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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 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sorter dis), 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:pg76586:14:3
# text = Dem dont tetch de groun wid dem foot, but dem sorter dis skim pon topper de grass.
1	Dem	Dem	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
2	dont	dont	X	FW	_	3	compound	_	_
3	tetch	tetch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	3	flat:foreign	_	_
5	groun	groun	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	3	conj	_	_
6	wid	wid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
7	dem	dem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	foot	foot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
11	dem	dem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	sorter	sorter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	dis	dis	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
14	skim	skim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
15	pon	pon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	compound	_	_
16	topper	topper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
17	de	de	X	FW	Foreign=Yes	16	flat:foreign	_	_
18	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **topper** |  | sorter dis |  |  |  |  | grass *appos* | 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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