---
title: The Scarecrow told them there were wonderful thoughts in his head; b… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: The Scarecrow told them there were wonderful thoughts in his head; but he would not say what they were because he knew no one could understand them but himself. Who acts: Scarecrow, wonderful thoughts, Oz., friends. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XVII. How the B
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XVII. How the Balloon Was Launched, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Scarecrow told them there were wonderful thoughts in his head; but he would not say what they were because he knew no one could understand them but himself.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Scarecrow, wonderful thoughts, Oz., friends, one · **What happens:** tell, be, not say, understand · **To what, where:** friends · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Scarecrow, wonderful thoughts, Oz., friends), 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:pg55:19:2
# text = The Scarecrow told them there were wonderful thoughts in his head; but he would not say what they were because he knew no one could understand them but himself.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Scarecrow	scarecrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	wonderful	wonderful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	thoughts	thought	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	23	obj	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
20	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
21	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
22	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
24	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	25	det	_	_
25	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	ccomp	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	23	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the Scarecrow |  | friends *= friend* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **be** | past | wonderful thoughts in Oz.'s head |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **say** *speech: assert* | would | Oz. |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is** | past | friends *= friend* |  |  |  |  | know *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **understand** | could | no one | friends *= friend* |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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