---
title: This was telling, and Slightly seized his chance. — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: This was telling, and Slightly seized his chance. Who acts: This, rule. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/11/27/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Peter Pan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/) / [Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/11/) / 27

# Peter Pan, Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME, sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This was telling, and Slightly seized his chance.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** This, rule · **What happens:** tell, seize, chance · **To what, where:** chance · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (This, rule), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**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:pg16:11:27
# text = This was telling, and Slightly seized his chance.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
6	Slightly	slightly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	seized	seize	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	chance	chance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · progressive | This |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **seize** | past |  | rule's chance |  |  |  | slightly *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Theme |
| 3 | **chance** |  | rule |  |  |  |  |  | nom chance «state intransitive»: poss=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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/11/26/)
- next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/11/28/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/11/)