---
title: She could not have been a good, honest old woman; for, first, she lo… — The Green Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: She could not have been a good, honest old woman; for, first, she looked in at the window, and then she peeped in at the keyhole; and, seeing nobody in the house, she lifted the latch. Who acts: woman. A sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Three Bears, with its depend
---

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# The Green Fairy Book, The Story of the Three Bears, sentence 8

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She could not have been a good, honest old woman; for, first, she looked in at the window, and then she peeped in at the keyhole; and, seeing nobody in the house, she lifted the latch.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** woman · **What happens:** not be, look in, peep in, see, lift · **To what, where:** good honest old woman, window, nobody, house, latch

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of the Three Bears. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman), 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:pg7277:32:8
# text = She could not have been a good, honest old woman; for, first, she looked in at the window, and then she peeped in at the keyhole; and, seeing nobody in the house, she lifted the latch.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	cop	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
7	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
9	honest	honest	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
25	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	27	advmod	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
27	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
28	in	in	ADP	RP	_	27	compound:prt	_	_
29	at	at	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	keyhole	keyhole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	42	punct	_	_
33	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	42	advcl	_	_
36	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	35	obj	_	_
37	in	in	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
41	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	nsubj	_	_
42	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	latch	latch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | could · perfect | woman | a good honest old woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **look in** | past | woman |  |  | the window |  |  | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for first=Theme at window=Location |
| 3 | **peep in** | past | woman |  |  |  | then | at the keyhole | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at keyhole=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | gerund | woman *not said here* | nobody |  | the house |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nobody=Stimulus |
| 5 | **lift** | past | woman | the latch |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent latch=Theme |

<!-- .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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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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