---
title: “As I can’t be father,” he said heavily, “I don’t suppose, Michael,… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “As I can’t be father,” he said heavily, “I don’t suppose, Michael, you would let me be baby?” Who acts: Father, you. 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 44

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“As I can’t be father,” he said heavily, “I don’t suppose, Michael, you would let me be baby?”

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**Who acts:** Father, you · **What happens:** not be, say, not suppose, let, be · **To what, where:** father, Michael, baby · **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, you), 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:pg16:11:44
# text = “As I can’t be father,” he said heavily, “I don’t suppose, Michael, you would let me be baby?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	heavily	heavily	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	suppose	suppose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	Michael	Michael	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	parataxis	_	_
25	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
27	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** *in a quote* | can | Father | father |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Father |  |  |  |  | heavily *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **suppose** *in a quote* | present · do-support | Father | Michael |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent michael=Attribute |
| 4 | **let** *in a quote* | would | you | Father |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | infinitive | Father *not said here* | baby |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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