---
title: De snake say: “Kin you keep secret from you wife?” — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: De snake say: “Kin you keep secret from you wife?” Who acts: De snake, you. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 4, 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 4, sentence 129

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De snake say: “Kin you keep secret from you wife?”

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**Who acts:** De snake, you · **What happens:** say, keep · **To what, where:** Kin · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (De snake, you), 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:pg76586:4:129
# text = De snake say: “Kin you keep secret from you wife?”
1	De	De	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Kin	kin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	keep	keep	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
9	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	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* | infinitive | De snake |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **keep** *in a quote* | present | you | Kin |  |  |  | from wife  you; secret *obj* | vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer secret=Beneficiary from wife=Eventuality |

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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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