Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, IX. in the Role of a Tartar, sentence 34
But w'en a nigger comes a jabberin' 'roun' like he got a mouf full er rice straw, he ain't got no mo' chance long side er me dan a sick sparrer wid a squinch-owl.
Who acts: man, mouf, chance long side, dan · What happens: w'en, come, get, straw, not get, er · To what, where: nigger, roun, mo, me, squinch owl
This is a sentence of «Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings» by Joel Chandler Harris, IX. in the Role of a Tartar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, mouf, chance long side, dan), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 2 w'en | cc |
| 2 | w'en | w'en | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 comes | csubj |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 nigger | det |
| 4 | nigger | nigger | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 w'en | obj |
| 5 | comes | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 jabberin | det |
| 7 | jabberin | jabberin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 roun | nmod:poss |
| 8 | ' | 's | PART | _ | 7 jabberin | case |
| 9 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 10 roun | punct |
| 10 | roun | roun | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 comes | obl |
| 11 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 10 roun | punct |
| 12 | like | like | SCONJ | _ | 14 got | mark |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 got | nsubj |
| 14 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 comes | advcl |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 straw | det |
| 16 | mouf | mouf | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 straw | nsubj |
| 17 | full | full | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 straw | amod |
| 18 | er | er | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 rice | compound |
| 19 | rice | rice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 straw | compound |
| 20 | straw | straw | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 got | obj |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 got | punct |
| 22 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 got | nsubj |
| 23 | ai | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 25 got | aux |
| 24 | n't | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 25 got | advmod |
| 25 | got | get | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 5 comes | parataxis |
| 26 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 27 mo | det |
| 27 | mo | mo | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 got | obj |
| 28 | ' | ' | PUNCT | _ | 25 got | punct |
| 29 | chance | chance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 side | compound |
| 30 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 side | amod |
| 31 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 er | nsubj |
| 32 | er | er | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 got | parataxis |
| 33 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 32 er | obj |
| 34 | dan | dan | X | Foreign=Yes | 38 wid | nsubj |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 sparrer | det |
| 36 | sick | sick | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 sparrer | amod |
| 37 | sparrer | sparrer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 wid | nsubj |
| 38 | wid | wi | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 er | conj |
| 39 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 42 owl | det |
| 40 | squinch | squinch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 owl | compound |
| 41 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 40 squinch | punct |
| 42 | owl | owl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 wid | obj |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 comes | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | w'en | infinitive | a nigger | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | come | present | a jabberin's roun | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | get | past | man | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 4 | straw | mouf | tree rules | ||||||
| 5 | not get | present · passive | man | no mo | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mo=Stimulus | ||||
| 6 | er | past | chance long side | me | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | wi | past | dan | a squinch owl | tree rules |
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/pg2306/55/34/