---
title: “Didn’t you know water would be the end of me?” asked the Witch, in… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: “Didn’t you know water would be the end of me?” asked the Witch, in a wailing, despairing voice. Who acts: you, water, 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg55/14/164/)

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch, sentence 164

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“Didn’t you know water would be the end of me?” asked the Witch, in a wailing, despairing voice.

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**Who acts:** you, water, Witch · **What happens:** not know, be, ask, despair · **To what, where:** end, wailing, voice · **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 (you, water, 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:pg55:14:164
# text = “Didn’t you know water would be the end of me?” asked the Witch, in a wailing, despairing voice.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
6	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
15	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	Witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	wailing	wailing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	despairing	despair	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
24	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | past · do-support | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | would | water | the end |  |  |  | of the Witch *= witch* | tree rules |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the Witch |  |  | a wailing |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **despair** | gerund | the Witch *not said here* | voice |  |  |  |  | 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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