---
title: Even Slightly tried to tell a story that night, but the beginning wa… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Even Slightly tried to tell a story that night, but the beginning was so fearfully dull that it appalled not only the others but himself, and he said gloomily: Who acts: beginning, Wendy. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME, with its dependency tree and the pragmatic
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME, sentence 145

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Even Slightly tried to tell a story that night, but the beginning was so fearfully dull that it appalled not only the others but himself, and he said gloomily:

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**Who acts:** beginning, Wendy · **What happens:** try, tell, be, appal, say · **To what, where:** story, others · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (beginning, Wendy), 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:pg16:11:145
# text = Even Slightly tried to tell a story that night, but the beginning was so fearfully dull that it appalled not only the others but himself, and he said gloomily:
1	Even	even	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	Slightly	slightly	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	fearfully	fearfully	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	dull	dull	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	appalled	appal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
22	only	only	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	others	other	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	obj	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
31	gloomily	gloomily	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past |  |  |  |  |  | slightly *property* | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | a story |  |  | night |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient |
| 3 | **is** | past | the beginning |  |  |  |  | dull, fearfully *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **appal** | past | beginning | the others |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Wendy |  |  |  |  | gloomily *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=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.

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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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