---
title: The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, “I cannot understand why… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, “I cannot understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas.” Who acts: Scarecrow, you. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter IV. The Road Through the Forest, wi
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter IV. The Road Through the Forest, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, “I cannot understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Scarecrow, you · **What happens:** listen, say, not understand, wish, leave, go back · **To what, where:** beautiful country, dry gray place, Kansas · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter IV. The Road Through the Forest. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarecrow, you), 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:pg55:6:13
# text = The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, “I cannot understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Scarecrow	scarecrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	carefully	carefully	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	ccomp	_	_
14	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	_
20	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
21	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	conj	_	_
25	back	back	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
28	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
30	gray	gray	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
32	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	_
34	Kansas	Kansas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **listen** | past | the Scarecrow |  |  |  |  | carefully *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Scarecrow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **understand** *in a quote* | can | the Scarecrow *= scarecrow* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 4 | **wish** *in a quote* | should | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 5 | **leave** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | you *not said here* | this beautiful country |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent country=Theme |
| 6 | **go back** *in a quote* | infinitive | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the dry gray place *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to place=Result |
| 7 | **call** *in a quote* | present | you | the dry gray place *not said here* | Kansas |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent kansas=Recipient |

<!-- .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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