---
title: “I cannot tell,” answered the soldier, “for nobody has ever crossed… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: “I cannot tell,” answered the soldier, “for nobody has ever crossed the desert, unless it is Oz himself.” Who acts: soldier. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XVIII. Away to the South, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XVIII. Away to the South, sentence 47

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“I cannot tell,” answered the soldier, “for nobody has ever crossed the desert, unless it is Oz himself.”

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**Who acts:** soldier · **What happens:** not tell, answer, cross, be · **To what, where:** desert, Oz · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XVIII. Away to the South. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (soldier), 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:pg55:20:47
# text = “I cannot tell,” answered the soldier, “for nobody has ever crossed the desert, unless it is Oz himself.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	soldier	soldier	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	17	obl	_	_
15	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	17	advmod	_	_
17	crossed	cross	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	parataxis	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	unless	unless	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
24	Oz	Oz	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
25	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | the soldier *= soldier* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the soldier |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **cross** *in a quote* | present · perfect |  | the desert |  |  | ever | for nobody | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent desert=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | soldier | Oz |  |  |  | band *nmod* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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