---
title: The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality a… — Grimms' Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there. Who acts: woman, wicked witch. A sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Gretel, with its 
---

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# Grimms' Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, sentence 86

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there.

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**Who acts:** woman, wicked witch · **What happens:** pretend, be, lay, build, entice · **To what, where:** old woman, reality, wait, little house, children

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This is a sentence of «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Hansel and Gretel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, wicked witch), 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:pg2591:20:86
# text = The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	reality	reality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	wait	wait	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	only	only	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
30	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
34	of	of	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nmod	_	_
36	in	in	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	39	mark	_	_
37	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	fixed	_	_
38	to	to	PART	TO	_	39	mark	_	_
39	entice	entice	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
40	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	obj	_	_
41	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	39	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pretend** | past · perfect · passive |  | the old woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | kind *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | woman |  |  | reality |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **lay** | present | a wicked witch |  |  | wait for children |  |  | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in wait=Destination |
| 5 | **build** | past · perfect |  | the little house of bread |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset house=Product |
| 6 | **entice** | to-infinitive |  | children *= child* |  | there |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus they=Experiencer |

<!-- .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:** «Grimms' Fairy Tales» by Jacob Grimm, Project Gutenberg book 2591 (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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