---
title: But there was also an evil witch who could not bear them, and she be… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But there was also an evil witch who could not bear them, and she began to lay plots how she might contrive their overthrow. Who acts: evil witch, witch, children. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 8, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/126/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/) / 126

# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 8, sentence 126

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But there was also an evil witch who could not bear them, and she began to lay plots how she might contrive their overthrow.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** evil witch, witch, children · **What happens:** be, not bear, begin, lay, contrive, overthrow · **To what, where:** children, plots, overthrow

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (evil witch, witch, children), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:8:126
# text = But there was also an evil witch who could not bear them, and she began to lay plots how she might contrive their overthrow.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	also	also	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	plots	plot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
20	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	contrive	contrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	overthrow	overthrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a evil witch |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **bear** | could | a evil witch | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **begin** | past | witch |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **lay** | to-infinitive | witch *not said here* | plots |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plot=Result |
| 5 | **contrive** | might | witch | children's overthrow |  |  |  |  | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent overthrow=Result |
| 6 | **overthrow** |  | children *= child* |  |  |  |  |  | nom overthrow «act transitive»: poss=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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Project Gutenberg book 62509 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/125/)
- next →: [sentence 127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/127/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/8/)