---
title: “If I cannot harness you,” said the Witch to the Lion, speaking thro… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: “If I cannot harness you,” said the Witch to the Lion, speaking through the bars of the gate, “I can starve you. Who acts: Witch. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch, sentence 128

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“If I cannot harness you,” said the Witch to the Lion, speaking through the bars of the gate, “I can starve you.

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**Who acts:** Witch · **What happens:** not harness, say, speak, starve · **To what, where:** you, bars · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Witch), 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:pg55:14:128
# text = “If I cannot harness you,” said the Witch to the Lion, speaking through the bars of the gate, “I can starve you.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
6	harness	harness	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Lion	Lion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
17	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
18	through	through	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	bars	bar	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	gate	gate	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	starve	starve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	_
29	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **harness** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | can | the Witch *= witch* |  | you |  |  |  | vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent you=Destination |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Witch |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund | the Witch *not said here* |  |  | the bars of the gate |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **starve** *in a quote* | can | the Witch *= witch* | you |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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