Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 103

There is an anecdote about the Irishman and the rabbit which a number of negroes have told to me with great unction, and which is both funny and characteristic, though I will not undertake to say that it has its origin with the blacks.

Who acts: anecdote, I, number · What happens: be, tell, not undertake, say, have · To what, where: number, me, origin · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Dear Frost:. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (anecdote, I, number), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher. This tree is Mova's own parse (the en model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	2 is	expl
2	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 anecdote	det
4	anecdote	anecdote	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 is	nsubj
5	about	about	ADP	_	7 Irishman	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Irishman	det
7	Irishman	Irishman	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 anecdote	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 rabbit	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 rabbit	det
10	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 Irishman	conj
11	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 told	obj
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 number	det
13	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 told	nsubj:pass
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 negroes	case
15	negroes	negro	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 number	nmod
16	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 told	aux
17	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 rabbit	acl:relcl
18	to	to	ADP	_	19 me	case
19	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	17 told	obl
20	with	with	ADP	_	22 unction	case
21	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 unction	amod
22	unction	unction	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 told	obl
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 funny	punct
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	28 funny	cc
25	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	28 funny	nsubj
26	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	28 funny	cop
27	both	both	CCONJ	_	28 funny	cc:preconj
28	funny	funny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 is	parataxis
29	and	and	CCONJ	_	30 characteristic	cc
30	characteristic	characteristic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 funny	conj
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 undertake	punct
32	though	though	SCONJ	_	36 undertake	mark
33	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	36 undertake	nsubj
34	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	36 undertake	aux
35	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	36 undertake	advmod
36	undertake	undertake	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	28 funny	conj
37	to	to	PART	_	38 say	mark
38	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 undertake	xcomp
39	that	that	SCONJ	_	41 has	mark
40	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 has	nsubj
41	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	38 say	ccomp
42	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	43 origin	nmod:poss
43	origin	origin	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 has	obj
44	with	with	ADP	_	46 blacks	case
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	46 blacks	det
46	blacks	black	NOUN	Number=Plur	43 origin	nmod
47	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 is	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	be	present	a anecdote about the Irishman and the rabbit			there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	tell speech: assert	present · perfect · passive		a number of negroes	me		with great unction	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient which=Topic
3	is	present					funny property	tree rules
4	be							tree rules
5	not undertake	future	I					vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
6	say speech: assert	to-infinitive	I not said here					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
7	have	present	number	number's origin			with the blacks	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent origin=Patient

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.

Text: «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, Project Gutenberg book 2306 (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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