---
title: So I believe the best way to get across the desert will be through t… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: So I believe the best way to get across the desert will be through the air. Who acts: I, best way. 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 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So I believe the best way to get across the desert will be through the air.

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**Who acts:** I, best way · **What happens:** believe, get, be · **To what, where:** desert, air · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I, best way), 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:pg55:19:15
# text = So I believe the best way to get across the desert will be through the air.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	believe	believe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	amod	_	_
6	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	acl	_	_
9	across	across	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
14	through	through	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **get** | to-infinitive | the best way *not said here* |  |  | the desert |  |  | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme across desert=Destination |
| 3 | **is** | future | the best way |  |  | the air |  |  | tree rules |

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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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