---
title: “It has been many years since anyone asked me to see Oz,” he said, s… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: “It has been many years since anyone asked me to see Oz,” he said, shaking his head in perplexity. Who acts: answer, man. 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 pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter X. The Guardian of the Gate, sentence 84

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“It has been many years since anyone asked me to see Oz,” he said, shaking his head in perplexity.

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**Who acts:** answer, man · **What happens:** be, ask, see, say, shake · **To what, where:** many years, man, Oz, head, perplexity · **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 (answer, man), 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:pg55:12:84
# text = “It has been many years since anyone asked me to see Oz,” he said, shaking his head in perplexity.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	cop	_	_
5	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	since	since	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	6	nmod	_	_
9	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
10	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
13	Oz	Oz	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
19	shaking	shake	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	perplexity	perplexity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present · perfect | answer | many years |  |  | since anyone |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | past | man *not said here* |  | man |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **see** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* | Oz |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer oz=Stimulus |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **shake** | gerund | man *not said here* | man's head |  | perplexity |  |  | vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent head=Theme in perplexity=Trajectory |

<!-- .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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