---
title: Then at last he understood, and clutched the nest and waved his than… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Then at last he understood, and clutched the nest and waved his thanks to the bird as she fluttered overhead. Who acts: bird, Peter. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/10/30/)

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# Peter Pan, Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD, sentence 30

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Then at last he understood, and clutched the nest and waved his thanks to the bird as she fluttered overhead.

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**Who acts:** bird, Peter · **What happens:** understand, clutch, wave, flutter · **To what, where:** last, nest, thanks, bird

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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 (bird, Peter), 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:pg16:10:30
# text = Then at last he understood, and clutched the nest and waved his thanks to the bird as she fluttered overhead.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	understood	understand	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	clutched	clutch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	waved	wave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	thanks	thanks	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
18	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	fluttered	flutter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
21	overhead	overhead	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **understand** | past | bird |  |  | last | then |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **clutch** | past |  | the nest |  |  |  |  | vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nest=Theme |
| 3 | **wave** | past |  | bird's thanks | the bird |  |  |  | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent thanks=Theme to bird=Recipient |
| 4 | **flutter** | past | Peter |  |  |  |  | overhead *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=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:** «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.

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