---
title: Steadily the waters rose till they were nibbling at his feet; and to… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Steadily the waters rose till they were nibbling at his feet; and to pass the time until they made their final gulp, he watched the only thing on the lagoon. Who acts: waters, sound. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/10/3/)

<!-- 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/) / [Peter Pan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/) / [Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/10/) / 3

# Peter Pan, Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Steadily the waters rose till they were nibbling at his feet; and to pass the time until they made their final gulp, he watched the only thing on the lagoon.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** waters, sound · **What happens:** rise, nibble, pass, make, watch, gulp · **To what, where:** final gulp, only thing, lagoon

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (waters, sound), 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:pg16:10:3
# text = Steadily the waters rose till they were nibbling at his feet; and to pass the time until they made their final gulp, he watched the only thing on the lagoon.
1	Steadily	steadily	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	nibbling	nibble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
9	at	at	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
22	final	final	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	gulp	gulp	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	only	only	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
30	on	on	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	lagoon	lagoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rise** | past | the waters |  |  |  |  | steadily *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **nibble** | past · progressive | waters *= water* |  |  |  |  | at sound's feet | vn chew-39.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at foot=Patient |
| 3 | **pass** | to-infinitive | the waters *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | past | waters *= water* | waters's final gulp |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset gulp=Product |
| 5 | **watch** | past | sound | the only thing |  | the lagoon |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Theme |
| 6 | **gulp** |  | waters *= water* |  |  |  |  |  | nom gulp «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:** «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Project Gutenberg book 16 (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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/10/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/10/4/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/10/)