---
title: But the first thing to do is to cross the desert, and then it should… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: But the first thing to do is to cross the desert, and then it should be easy to find your way home.” Who acts: first thing. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XVII. How the Balloon Was Launched, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XVII. How the Balloon Was Launched, sentence 10

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the first thing to do is to cross the desert, and then it should be easy to find your way home.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** first thing · **What happens:** do, be, find · **To what, where:** way

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This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XVII. How the Balloon Was Launched. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (first thing), 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:pg55:19:10
# text = But the first thing to do is to cross the desert, and then it should be easy to find your way home.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	amod	_	_
4	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
14	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	expl	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	cop	_	_
18	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	csubj	_	_
21	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	home	home	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | to-infinitive | the first thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | the first thing |  |  |  |  | cross *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | should | the first thing *not said here* |  |  |  | then | easy *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **find** | to-infinitive |  | your way |  |  |  | home *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Topic |

<!-- .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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