Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Dear Frost:, sentence 29

Nevertheless, if the language of Uncle Remus fails to give vivid hints of the really poetic imagination of the negro; if it fails to embody the quaint and homely humor which was his most prominent characteristic; if it does not suggest a certain picturesque sensitiveness--a curious exaltation of mind and temperament not to be defined by words--then I have reproduced the form of the dialect merely, and not the essence, and my attempt may be accounted a failure.

Who acts: language, quaint humor, words, I, poetic imagination, my · What happens: fail, not give, not embody, be, not suggest, not define · To what, where: vivid hints, quaint humor, prominent characteristic, certain picturesque sensitiveness, form, attempt

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 (language, quaint humor, words, I), 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	Nevertheless	nevertheless	ADV	_	9 fails	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nevertheless	punct
3	if	if	SCONJ	_	9 fails	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 language	det
5	language	language	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 fails	nsubj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 Remus	case
7	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Remus	compound
8	Remus	Remus	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 language	nmod
9	fails	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	to	to	PART	_	11 give	mark
11	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 fails	xcomp
12	vivid	vivid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 hints	amod
13	hints	hint	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 give	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	18 imagination	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 imagination	det
16	really	really	ADV	_	17 poetic	advmod
17	poetic	poetic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 imagination	amod
18	imagination	imagination	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 hints	nmod
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 negro	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 negro	det
21	negro	negro	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 imagination	nmod
22	;	;	PUNCT	_	25 fails	punct
23	if	if	SCONJ	_	25 fails	mark
24	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 fails	nsubj
25	fails	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 fails	conj
26	to	to	PART	_	27 embody	mark
27	embody	embody	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 fails	xcomp
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 humor	det
29	quaint	quaint	ADJ	Degree=Pos	32 humor	amod
30	and	and	CCONJ	_	31 homely	cc
31	homely	homely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	29 quaint	conj
32	humor	humor	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 embody	obj
33	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	38 characteristic	nsubj
34	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 characteristic	cop
35	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	38 characteristic	nmod:poss
36	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	37 prominent	advmod
37	prominent	prominent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	38 characteristic	amod
38	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 humor	acl:relcl
39	;	;	PUNCT	_	44 suggest	punct
40	if	if	SCONJ	_	44 suggest	mark
41	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	44 suggest	nsubj
42	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	44 suggest	aux
43	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	44 suggest	advmod
44	suggest	suggest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 fails	conj
45	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	48 sensitiveness	det
46	certain	certain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	48 sensitiveness	amod
47	picturesque	picturesque	ADJ	Degree=Pos	48 sensitiveness	amod
48	sensitiveness	sensitiveness	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 suggest	obj
49	--	--	PUNCT	_	52 exaltation	punct
50	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	52 exaltation	det
51	curious	curious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	52 exaltation	amod
52	exaltation	exaltation	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 sensitiveness	appos
53	of	of	ADP	_	54 mind	case
54	mind	mind	NOUN	Number=Sing	52 exaltation	nmod
55	and	and	CCONJ	_	56 temperament	cc
56	temperament	temperament	NOUN	Number=Sing	52 exaltation	conj
57	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	60 defined	advmod
58	to	to	PART	_	60 defined	mark
59	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	60 defined	aux:pass
60	defined	define	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	52 exaltation	acl
61	by	by	ADP	_	62 words	case
62	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	60 defined	obl
63	--	--	PUNCT	_	67 reproduced	punct
64	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	67 reproduced	advmod
65	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	67 reproduced	nsubj
66	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	67 reproduced	aux
67	reproduced	reproduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	44 suggest	conj
68	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	69 form	det
69	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	67 reproduced	obj
70	of	of	ADP	_	72 dialect	case
71	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	72 dialect	det
72	dialect	dialect	NOUN	Number=Sing	69 form	nmod
73	merely	merely	ADV	_	67 reproduced	advmod
74	,	,	PUNCT	_	78 essence	punct
75	and	and	CCONJ	_	78 essence	cc
76	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	78 essence	advmod
77	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	78 essence	det
78	essence	essence	NOUN	Number=Sing	67 reproduced	obl
79	,	,	PUNCT	_	85 accounted	punct
80	and	and	CCONJ	_	85 accounted	cc
81	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	82 attempt	nmod:poss
82	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	85 accounted	nsubj:pass
83	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	85 accounted	aux
84	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	85 accounted	aux:pass
85	accounted	account	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 fails	conj
86	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	87 failure	det
87	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	85 accounted	obj
88	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 fails	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	fail	present	the language of Uncle Remus			nevertheless property	vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	not give	to-infinitive	the language of Uncle Remus not said here	vivid hints of the poetic imagination of the negro			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hint=Theme
3	fail a condition, not said to happen	present	language				vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	not embody	to-infinitive	language not said here	the quaint humor			tree rules
5	is a	past	the quaint humor	Remus's prominent characteristic			tree rules
6	not suggest speech: suggest a condition, not said to happen	present · do-support	language	a certain picturesque sensitiveness			vn say-37.7-1-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sensitiveness=Topic
7	not define	to-infinitive · passive	words				vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
8	reproduce	present · perfect	I	the form of the dialect	then	the essence obl; merely property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent form=Patient
9	account	may · passive		my attempt			tree rules
10	hint		the poetic imagination of the negro				nom hint «communication intransitive»: of=agent
11	imagine			the negro			nom imagination «cognition transitive»: of=patient
12	exalt			mind			nom exaltation «state transitive»: of=patient
13	form			the dialect			nom form «communication transitive»: of=patient
14	attempt		my				nom attempt «act transitive»: poss=agent

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2306/1/29/