---
title: They came from all directions, and there were thousands of them: big… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: They came from all directions, and there were thousands of them: big mice and little mice and middle-sized mice; and each one brought a piece of string in his mouth. Who acts: pieces, thousands, one. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter IX. The Queen of the Field Mice
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter IX. The Queen of the Field Mice, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They came from all directions, and there were thousands of them: big mice and little mice and middle-sized mice; and each one brought a piece of string in his mouth.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** pieces, thousands, one · **What happens:** come, be, size, bring · **To what, where:** directions, piece, mouth

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter IX. The Queen of the Field Mice. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pieces, thousands, one), 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:pg55:11:50
# text = They came from all directions, and there were thousands of them: big mice and little mice and middle-sized mice; and each one brought a piece of string in his mouth.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	from	from	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	det	_	_
5	directions	direction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	9	expl	_	_
9	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
10	thousands	thousand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
14	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	middle	middle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	sized	size	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	23	amod	_	_
23	mice	mouse	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
26	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	27	det	_	_
27	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
28	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
32	string	string	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | pieces *= piece* |  |  | all directions |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from direction=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **be** | past | thousands of pieces  big mice and little mice and sized mice |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **size** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **bring** | past | each one | a piece of string |  | mouse's mouth |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent piece=Theme |

<!-- .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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