---
title: It was not really a piece of paper; it was the Never bird, making de… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: It was not really a piece of paper; it was the Never bird, making desperate efforts to reach Peter on the nest. Who acts: thing. 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 6

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It was not really a piece of paper; it was the Never bird, making desperate efforts to reach Peter on the nest.

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**Who acts:** thing · **What happens:** not be, make, reach · **To what, where:** piece, bird, desperate efforts, Peter, nest

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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 (thing), 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:pg16:10:6
# text = It was not really a piece of paper; it was the Never bird, making desperate efforts to reach Peter on the nest.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
4	really	really	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	Never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	making	make	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	conj	_	_
17	desperate	desperate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	efforts	effort	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	advcl	_	_
21	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | thing | a piece |  |  |  | of paper | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | past | thing | the bird |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **make** | gerund | thing *not said here* | desperate efforts |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset effort=Product |
| 4 | **reach** | to-infinitive | thing *not said here* | Peter |  | the nest |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent peter=Theme |

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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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