---
title: Once Tootles began, which was not very often, he had a silly way of… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Once Tootles began, which was not very often, he had a silly way of going on. Who acts: Tootles, Wendy, silly way. 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/pg16/11/43/)

<!-- 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/) / 43

# Peter Pan, Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME, sentence 43

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Once Tootles began, which was not very often, he had a silly way of going on.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Tootles, Wendy, silly way · **What happens:** begin, not have, be, go on · **To what, where:** silly way

<!-- .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 (Tootles, Wendy, silly way), 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:pg16:11:43
# text = Once Tootles began, which was not very often, he had a silly way of going on.
1	Once	once	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	Tootles	tootle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
8	very	very	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	often	often	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	parataxis	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	silly	silly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
16	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
17	going	go	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	15	acl	_	_
18	on	on	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | Tootles |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
| 2 | **not** **have** | past | Wendy |  |  |  |  | often *property* | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | a silly way |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go on** | gerund | a silly way *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «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.

<!-- 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 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/11/42/)
- next →: [sentence 44](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/11/44/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter X. THE HAPPY HOME](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/11/)