---
title: The old Witch, of course, knew nothing of what was going on, till on… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The old Witch, of course, knew nothing of what was going on, till one day Rapunzel, not thinking of what she was about, turned to the Witch and said: Who acts: old Witch. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Twelve Brothers, sentence 142

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The old Witch, of course, knew nothing of what was going on, till one day Rapunzel, not thinking of what she was about, turned to the Witch and said:

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**Who acts:** old Witch · **What happens:** know, go on, not think, turn, say · **To what, where:** nothing, witch · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Twelve Brothers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (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:pg540:41:142
# text = The old Witch, of course, knew nothing of what was going on, till one day Rapunzel, not thinking of what she was about, turned to the Witch and said:
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	Witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	8	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nmod	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	acl:relcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	till	till	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	nummod	_	_
18	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	Rapunzel	Rapunzel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	thinking	think	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	parataxis	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	22	obl	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux:pass	_	_
27	about	about	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	turned	turn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	acl:relcl	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	Witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
34	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | the old Witch and course | nothing |  |  | till day Rapunzel |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus |
| 2 | **go on** | past · progressive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **think** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **turn** | past · passive |  | witch |  |  |  | to the Witch *result*; about *property* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Theme to witch=Result |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (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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