---
title: “Perhaps not,” said the Scarecrow, “for we mean to destroy her.” — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: “Perhaps not,” said the Scarecrow, “for we mean to destroy her.” Who acts: Scarecrow, we. 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 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Perhaps not,” said the Scarecrow, “for we mean to destroy her.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Scarecrow, we · **What happens:** say, mean, destroy · **To what, where:** Guardian · **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 (Scarecrow, we), 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:pg55:14:8
# text = “Perhaps not,” said the Scarecrow, “for we mean to destroy her.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	2	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Scarecrow	scarecrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	mean	mean	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Scarecrow |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **mean** *in a quote* | present | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **destroy** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | we *not said here* | Guardian |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |

<!-- .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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