---
title: There were forty crows, and forty times the Scarecrow twisted a neck… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: There were forty crows, and forty times the Scarecrow twisted a neck, until at last all were lying dead beside him. Who acts: forty crows, all. 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 ev
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg55/14/53/)

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch, sentence 53

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
There were forty crows, and forty times the Scarecrow twisted a neck, until at last all were lying dead beside him.

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**Who acts:** forty crows, all · **What happens:** be, twist, lie · **To what, where:** neck, last

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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 (forty crows, all), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg55:14:53
# text = There were forty crows, and forty times the Scarecrow twisted a neck, until at last all were lying dead beside him.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	crows	crow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
7	forty	forty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Scarecrow	scarecrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:unmarked	_	_
11	twisted	twist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	neck	neck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
15	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
16	at	at	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obl	_	_
18	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	lying	lie	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
21	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
22	beside	beside	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | forty crows |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **twist** | past | forty crows *not said here* | a neck |  |  | time |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent neck=Theme |
| 3 | **lie** | past · progressive | all |  |  | last |  | beside Scarecrow; dead *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at last=Location |

<!-- .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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- ← previous: [sentence 52](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg55/14/52/)
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- ↑ back to [Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg55/14/)