---
title: But surely there is no use for a Scarecrow stuck on a pole in the mi… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: But surely there is no use for a Scarecrow stuck on a pole in the middle of a river. Who acts: use. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter VIII. The Deadly Poppy Field, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter VIII. The Deadly Poppy Field, sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But surely there is no use for a Scarecrow stuck on a pole in the middle of a river.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** use · **What happens:** be, stick · **To what, where:** Scarecrow, pole

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This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter VIII. The Deadly Poppy Field. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (use), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**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 {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg55:10:21
# text = But surely there is no use for a Scarecrow stuck on a pole in the middle of a river.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
3	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	4	expl	_	_
4	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	6	det	_	_
6	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	Scarecrow	scarecrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	stuck	stick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	pole	pole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | present | no use for a Scarecrow |  |  | there |  | surely *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **stick** | participle |  | a Scarecrow *not said here* |  | a pole |  | in the middle of a river | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme on pole=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
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:** «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Project Gutenberg book 55 (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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