---
title: Then they told him of the field mice, and how they had generously sa… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they told him of the field mice, and how they had generously saved him from death; and the Cowardly Lion laughed, and said: Who acts: flowers, Cowardly Lion. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter X. The Guardian of the Gate, with its dependency tree and the pragma
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter X. The Guardian of the Gate, sentence 4

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Then they told him of the field mice, and how they had generously saved him from death; and the Cowardly Lion laughed, and said:

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**Who acts:** flowers, Cowardly Lion · **What happens:** tell, save, laugh, say · **To what, where:** Lion, flowers, death · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter X. The Guardian of the Gate. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (flowers, Cowardly Lion), 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:pg55:12:4
# text = Then they told him of the field mice, and how they had generously saved him from death; and the Cowardly Lion laughed, and said:
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	field	field	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	generously	generously	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	saved	save	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	_
17	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	Cowardly	Cowardly	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	laughed	laugh	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | flowers *= flower* |  | Lion |  | then | of the field mice | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **save** | past · perfect · passive |  | flowers *= flower* |  | death |  | generously *property* | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary he=Theme |
| 3 | **laugh** | past | the Cowardly Lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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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