---
title: “How can I help being a humbug,” he said, “when all these people mak… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: “How can I help being a humbug,” he said, “when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can’t be done? Who acts: Lion, people, everybody. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XVI. The Magic Art of the Great Humbug, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XVI. The Magic Art of the Great Humbug, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“How can I help being a humbug,” he said, “when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can’t be done?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Lion, people, everybody · **What happens:** help, be, say, make, do, know · **To what, where:** humbug, Lion, things · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XVI. The Magic Art of the Great Humbug. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lion, people, everybody), 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:pg55:18:62
# text = “How can I help being a humbug,” he said, “when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can’t be done?
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
6	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	cop	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	humbug	humbug	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	19	mark	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
22	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	_
23	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	obj	_	_
24	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	25	nsubj	_	_
25	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	acl:relcl	_	_
26	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
28	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **help** *in a quote* | can | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | gerund |  | a humbug |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Lion |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **make** *in a quote* | present | all people | Lion |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **do** *in a quote* | infinitive | Lion *not said here* | things |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Eventuality |
| 6 | **know** *in a quote* | present | everybody | things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus |
| 7 | **not** **do** *in a quote* | can · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V» |

<!-- .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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