---
title: Then it occurred to him that the old woman might be a witch or sorce… — Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat · tree and pragmatics
description: Then it occurred to him that the old woman might be a witch or sorceress, whom it might be well to propitiate; so he reverently went up to her and asked for her blessing. Who acts: attention, old woman, hair, woman. A sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, The Noose of Murad.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/12/9/)

<!-- 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/) / [Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/) / [The Noose of Murad.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/12/) / 9

# Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat, The Noose of Murad., sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then it occurred to him that the old woman might be a witch or sorceress, whom it might be well to propitiate; so he reverently went up to her and asked for her blessing.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** attention, old woman, hair, woman · **What happens:** occur, be, go up, ask, bless · **To what, where:** hair, witch, woman

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, The Noose of Murad.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (attention, old woman, hair, woman), 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:pg76982:12:9
# text = Then it occurred to him that the old woman might be a witch or sorceress, whom it might be well to propitiate; so he reverently went up to her and asked for her blessing.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	occurred	occur	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
11	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	advcl	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	sorceress	sorceress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
17	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	obj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
19	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	cop	_	_
21	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	23	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	propitiate	propitiate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
25	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	reverently	reverently	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
29	up	up	ADP	RP	_	28	compound:prt	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
34	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	blessing	blessing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **occur** | past | attention |  | hair |  | then |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | might | the old woman | a witch or sorceress |  |  |  | sorceress *conj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | might | attention |  |  |  |  | a witch or sorceress *obj*; propitiate, well *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **go up** | past | hair |  | woman |  |  | reverently *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | hair *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for woman's blessing | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **bless** |  | woman |  |  |  |  |  | nom blessing «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:** «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, Project Gutenberg book 76982 (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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/12/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/12/10/)
- ↑ back to [The Noose of Murad.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg76982/12/)