---
title: “Go to the strangers and sting them to death!” commanded the Witch,… — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz · tree and pragmatics
description: “Go to the strangers and sting them to death!” commanded the Witch, and the bees turned and flew rapidly until they came to where Dorothy and her friends were walking. Who acts: bees, Dorothy. A sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch, 
---

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# The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch, sentence 57

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Go to the strangers and sting them to death!” commanded the Witch, and the bees turned and flew rapidly until they came to where Dorothy and her friends were walking.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** bees, Dorothy · **What happens:** go, sting, command, turn, fly, come · **To what, where:** strangers, Witch · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz» by L. Frank Baum, Chapter XII. The Search for the Wicked Witch. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bees, 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:pg55:14:57
# text = “Go to the strangers and sting them to death!” commanded the Witch, and the bees turned and flew rapidly until they came to where Dorothy and her friends were walking.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	sting	sting	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
13	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	Witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bees	bee	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
23	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	26	obl	_	_
29	Dorothy	Dorothy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	friends	friend	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	conj	_	_
33	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	28	advcl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  | the strangers |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to stranger=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **sting** *in a quote* | present |  | strangers *= stranger* |  |  |  | to death | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus they=Experiencer |
| 3 | **command** | past |  | the Witch |  |  |  |  | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent witch=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **turn** | past | the bees |  |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **fly** | past | the bees *not said here* |  |  |  |  | rapidly *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **come** | past | bees *= bee* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to where=Initial\_Location |
| 7 | **walk** | past · progressive | Dorothy and Dorothy's friends |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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