---
title: It was difficult to walk without falling into muddy holes, for the g… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: It was difficult to walk without falling into muddy holes, for the grass was so thick that it hid them from sight. Who acts: grass. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XXI. The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XXI. The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was difficult to walk without falling into muddy holes, for the grass was so thick that it hid them from sight.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** grass · **What happens:** be, walk, fall, hide · **To what, where:** muddy holes, holes, sight

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This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XXI. The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (grass), 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:pg55:23:2
# text = It was difficult to walk without falling into muddy holes, for the grass was so thick that it hid them from sight.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	expl	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	walk	walk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	falling	fall	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	into	into	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	muddy	muddy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
12	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	thick	thick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	hid	hide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
21	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past |  |  |  |  |  | difficult *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **walk** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | into muddy holes *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into hole=Result |
| 4 | **is** | past | the grass |  |  |  |  | thick *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **hide** | past | grass | holes *= hole* |  | sight |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent they=Patient from sight=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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