---
title: “Father knows best,” she always said, whatever her private opinion m… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “Father knows best,” she always said, whatever her private opinion must be. Who acts: Father, Peter. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME, sentence 15

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“Father knows best,” she always said, whatever her private opinion must be.

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**Who acts:** Father, Peter · **What happens:** know, say, opine · **To what, where:** whatever · **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 (Father, 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:pg16:11:15
# text = “Father knows best,” she always said, whatever her private opinion must be.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knows	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	best	well	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	9	advmod	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	whatever	whatever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	obj	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
13	private	private	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	opinion	opinion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** *in a quote* | present | Father |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Peter | whatever |  |  |  | always *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent whatever=Topic |
| 3 | **opine** |  | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | nom opinion «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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