---
title: The old woman had appeared to be most friendly, but she was really a… — The Blue Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old woman had appeared to be most friendly, but she was really an old witch who had waylaid the children, and had only built the little bread house in order to lure them in. Who acts: old woman, woman, old witch. A sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hansel and Grettel, with its de
---

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# The Blue Fairy Book, Hansel and Grettel, sentence 88

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old woman had appeared to be most friendly, but she was really an old witch who had waylaid the children, and had only built the little bread house in order to lure them in.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** old woman, woman, old witch · **What happens:** appear, be, waylay, build, lure in · **To what, where:** old witch, children, little bread house, order

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Blue Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Hansel and Grettel. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, woman, old witch), 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:pg503:35:88
# text = The old woman had appeared to be most friendly, but she was really an old witch who had waylaid the children, and had only built the little bread house in order to lure them in.
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	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	appeared	appear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	cop	_	_
8	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	9	advmod	_	_
9	friendly	friendly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
14	really	really	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
18	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	waylaid	waylay	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
26	only	only	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
29	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
30	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	order	order	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	lure	lure	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
36	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	obj	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appear** | past · perfect | the old woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | to-infinitive | the old woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  | friendly *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | past | woman | a old witch |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **waylay** | past · perfect | a old witch | the children |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **build** | past · perfect | the old woman *not said here* | the little bread house |  | order |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset house=Product |
| 6 | **lure in** | to-infinitive | the old woman *not said here* | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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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