---
title: The sisters pretended not to know, but the old woman easily guessed… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The sisters pretended not to know, but the old woman easily guessed what had happened, and, as she was in reality a wicked witch, determined to punish the fugitives. Who acts: sisters, old woman, sun. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, with its dep
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners, sentence 45

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The sisters pretended not to know, but the old woman easily guessed what had happened, and, as she was in reality a wicked witch, determined to punish the fugitives.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sisters, old woman, sun · **What happens:** pretend, not know, guess, happen, be, determine · **To what, where:** wicked witch, fugitives · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sisters, old woman, sun), 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:pg503:26:45
# text = The sisters pretended not to know, but the old woman easily guessed what had happened, and, as she was in reality a wicked witch, determined to punish the fugitives.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	reality	reality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
29	determined	determine	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	punish	punish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	fugitives	fugitive	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pretend** | past | the sisters |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **know** | to-infinitive | the sisters *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **guess** | past | the old woman |  |  |  |  | easily *property* | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | sun |  |  |  |  | as reality | tree rules |
| 6 | **determine** | participle |  | a wicked witch *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **punish** | to-infinitive |  | the fugitives |  |  |  |  | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fugitive=Patient |

<!-- .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 Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 503 (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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