---
title: She could not have been a good, honest old Woman; for first she look… — English Fairy Tales · 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 «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The Story of the Three Bears, with its dependen
---

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# English Fairy Tales, The Story of the Three Bears, sentence 8

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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.

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**Who acts:** Woman · **What happens:** not be, look in, peep in, see, lift · **To what, where:** good honest old Woman, window, nobody, house, latch

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This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, 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.

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**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:pg7439:21:8
# 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	16	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	1	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	16	obl	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	window	window	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	25	advmod	_	_
24	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	peeped	peep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	RP	_	25	compound:prt	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	keyhole	keyhole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	39	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
32	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	39	advcl	_	_
33	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	32	obj	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
38	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	39	nsubj	_	_
39	lifted	lift	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
40	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	41	det	_	_
41	latch	latch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | could · perfect |  | 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:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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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