---
title: Alas, Tinker Bell could not explain this, for even she did not know… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Alas, Tinker Bell could not explain this, for even she did not know the dark secret of Slightly’s tree. Who acts: Tinker Bell, Bell. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XIII. DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES?, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/14/111/)

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# Peter Pan, Chapter XIII. DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES?, sentence 111

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Alas, Tinker Bell could not explain this, for even she did not know the dark secret of Slightly’s tree.

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**Who acts:** Tinker Bell, Bell · **What happens:** not explain, not know · **To what, where:** this, dark secret

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XIII. DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES?. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tinker Bell, Bell), 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:pg16:14:111
# text = Alas, Tinker Bell could not explain this, for even she did not know the dark secret of Slightly’s tree.
1	Alas	alas	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	Tinker	Tinker	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	Bell	Bell	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	explain	explain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
11	even	even	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	secret	secret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	Slightly	Slightly	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **explain** *speech: assert* | could | Tinker Bell | this |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **know** | past · do-support | Bell | the dark secret of Slightly's tree |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer secret=Stimulus |

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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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