---
title: It seems to me they must be more cowardly than you are if they allow… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: It seems to me they must be more cowardly than you are if they allow you to scare them so easily.” Who acts: It, Dorothy. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter VI. The Cowardly Lion, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter VI. The Cowardly Lion, sentence 73

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It seems to me they must be more cowardly than you are if they allow you to scare them so easily.”

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**Who acts:** It, Dorothy · **What happens:** seem, be, allow, scare · **To what, where:** me, you, Dorothy

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This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter VI. The Cowardly Lion. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, Dorothy), 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:pg55:8:73
# text = It seems to me they must be more cowardly than you are if they allow you to scare them so easily.”
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
8	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	9	advmod	_	_
9	cowardly	cowardly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
10	than	than	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
13	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	allow	allow	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	scare	scare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seem** | present | It |  | me |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | must | Dorothy |  |  |  |  | than you; cowardly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **allow** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | Dorothy |  | you |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer you=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **scare** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Dorothy *not said here* | Dorothy |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus they=Experiencer |

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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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