---
title: “I certainly shall if I am able,” the Scarecrow replied; “but I must… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: “I certainly shall if I am able,” the Scarecrow replied; “but I must help Dorothy to get home, first.” Who acts: Scarecrow, Dorothy. 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 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“I certainly shall if I am able,” the Scarecrow replied; “but I must help Dorothy to get home, first.”

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**Who acts:** Scarecrow, Dorothy · **What happens:** be, reply, help, get · **To what, where:** Dorothy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Scarecrow, Dorothy), 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:pg55:21:5
# text = “I certainly shall if I am able,” the Scarecrow replied; “but I must help Dorothy to get home, first.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	certainly	certainly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
8	able	able	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	Scarecrow	Scarecrow	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
20	Dorothy	Dorothy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
23	home	home	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | shall | the Scarecrow *= scarecrow* |  |  |  |  | able *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the Scarecrow |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **help** *in a quote* | must | the Scarecrow *= scarecrow* | Dorothy |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent dorothy=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 4 | **get** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Dorothy *not said here* |  |  |  |  | first, home *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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