---
title: Den eh say: “Enty me bin tell you eh heap better ter wait on de Lord… — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Den eh say: “Enty me bin tell you eh heap better ter wait on de Lord stidder trus ter you own luck? Who acts: Den eh, you, better ter. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 3, sentence 37

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Den eh say: “Enty me bin tell you eh heap better ter wait on de Lord stidder trus ter you own luck?

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**Who acts:** Den eh, you, better ter · **What happens:** say, tell, heap, wait · **To what, where:** Enty, Lord stidder trus, de · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Den eh, you, better ter), 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:pg76586:3:37
# text = Den eh say: “Enty me bin tell you eh heap better ter wait on de Lord stidder trus ter you own luck?
1	Den	Den	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	eh	eh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Enty	enty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	obl	_	_
7	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	bin	bin	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	eh	eh	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	heap	heap	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
13	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	14	amod	_	_
14	ter	ter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	wait	wait	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
16	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	de	de	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
19	stidder	stidder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	trus	trus	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	_
21	ter	ter	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
23	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	?	?	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: ask* | present | Den eh | Enty  me |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive | Den eh *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **heap** *in a quote* |  | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **wait** *in a quote* | present | better ter | Lord stidder trus |  | de |  | ter you; own luck *obl:unmarked* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on de=Location |

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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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- ↑ back to [Opening, part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76586/3/)