---
title: When a big branch bent down to seize him the Woodman chopped at it s… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: When a big branch bent down to seize him the Woodman chopped at it so fiercely that he cut it in two. Who acts: big branch, Woodman. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XIX. Attacked by the Fighting Trees, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XIX. Attacked by the Fighting Trees, sentence 41

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When a big branch bent down to seize him the Woodman chopped at it so fiercely that he cut it in two.

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**Who acts:** big branch, Woodman · **What happens:** bend down, seize, chop, cut · **To what, where:** big branch, Woodman, journey, two

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This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XIX. Attacked by the Fighting Trees. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (big branch, Woodman), 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:pg55:21:41
# text = When a big branch bent down to seize him the Woodman chopped at it so fiercely that he cut it in two.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
5	bent	bend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	down	down	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	seize	seize	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Woodman	Woodman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
12	chopped	chop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	fiercely	fiercely	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
17	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bend down** | participle |  | a big branch *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **seize** | to-infinitive |  | Woodman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **chop** | past | a big branch |  |  |  |  | at journey; fiercely *property* | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at it=Patient |
| 4 | **cut** | past | Woodman | journey |  | two |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Product |

<!-- .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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