---
title: “It was me told him mothers are called old lady,” Michael whispered… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “It was me told him mothers are called old lady,” Michael whispered to Curly. Who acts: Michael. 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 79

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“It was me told him mothers are called old lady,” Michael whispered to Curly.

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**Who acts:** Michael · **What happens:** be, tell, call, whisper · **To what, where:** me, gun, Wendy, mothers, Curly · **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 (Michael), 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:pg16:11:79
# text = “It was me told him mothers are called old lady,” Michael whispered to Curly.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	parataxis	_	_
5	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	iobj	_	_
7	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
8	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	ccomp	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	lady	lady	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
14	Michael	Michael	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	Curly	Curly	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past |  | me |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past |  | gun | Wendy |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **call** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | mothers |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient |
| 4 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | Michael |  | Curly |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to curly=Recipient |

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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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