---
title: He thought it was a piece of floating paper, perhaps part of the kit… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: He thought it was a piece of floating paper, perhaps part of the kite, and wondered idly how long it would take to drift ashore. Who acts: sound, thing, it. 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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# Peter Pan, Chapter IX. THE NEVER BIRD, sentence 4

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He thought it was a piece of floating paper, perhaps part of the kite, and wondered idly how long it would take to drift ashore.

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**Who acts:** sound, thing, it · **What happens:** think, be, float, wonder, take, drift · **To what, where:** piece · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (sound, thing, it), 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:pg16:10:4
# text = He thought it was a piece of floating paper, perhaps part of the kite, and wondered idly how long it would take to drift ashore.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	floating	float	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	9	amod	_	_
9	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	kite	kite	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	wondered	wonder	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
19	idly	idly	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	21	advmod	_	_
21	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	24	advmod	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	drift	drift	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	csubj	_	_
27	ashore	ashore	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **think** *speech: other* | past | sound |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | past | thing | a piece |  |  |  | of floating paper | tree rules |
| 3 | **float** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **wonder** *speech: ask* | past | sound *not said here* |  |  |  |  | idly *property* | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **take** | would | it |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **drift** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | ashore *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2 «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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