---
title: He had hoped to fly, keeping not far from the ground so that nothing… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: He had hoped to fly, keeping not far from the ground so that nothing unwonted should escape his eyes; but in that fitful light to have flown low would have meant trailing his shadow through the trees, thus disturbing birds and acquainting a watchful foe that he was astir. Who acts: Peter, nothing. A
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/14/149/)

<!-- 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 XIII. DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/14/) / 149

# Peter Pan, Chapter XIII. DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES?, sentence 149

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had hoped to fly, keeping not far from the ground so that nothing unwonted should escape his eyes; but in that fitful light to have flown low would have meant trailing his shadow through the trees, thus disturbing birds and acquainting a watchful foe that he was astir.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Peter, nothing · **What happens:** hope, fly, keep, escape, mean, trail · **To what, where:** eyes, fitful light, shadow, trees, watchful foe

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Peter, nothing), 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:pg16:14:149
# text = He had hoped to fly, keeping not far from the ground so that nothing unwonted should escape his eyes; but in that fitful light to have flown low would have meant trailing his shadow through the trees, thus disturbing birds and acquainting a watchful foe that he was astir.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	hoped	hope	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	keeping	keep	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	nsubj	_	_
16	unwonted	unwonted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
17	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	escape	escape	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	det	_	_
25	fitful	fitful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
28	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux	_	_
29	flown	fly	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	26	acl	_	_
30	low	low	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	_
31	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
32	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux	_	_
33	meant	mean	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
34	trailing	trail	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	xcomp	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	obj	_	_
37	through	through	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
42	disturbing	disturbing	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	_
44	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	45	cc	_	_
45	acquainting	acquaint	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	conj	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	watchful	watchful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	amod	_	_
48	foe	foe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	45	obj	_	_
49	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	52	mark	_	_
50	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	nsubj	_	_
51	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	52	cop	_	_
52	astir	astir	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	45	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hope** | past · perfect | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **fly** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Peter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **keep** | gerund | Peter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **escape** | should | nothing | Peter's eyes |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme eye=Initial\_Location |
| 5 | **fly** | to-infinitive · perfect |  | that fitful light *not said here* |  |  |  | low *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **mean** | would · perfect · passive |  | that fitful light |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **trail** *not said to happen* | gerund |  | Peter's shadow |  | the trees |  | disturbing birds *obl* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent shadow=Theme through tree=Trajectory |
| 8 | **acquaint** *speech: other* | gerund |  | a watchful foe |  |  |  |  | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent foe=Recipient |
| 9 | **is** | past | Peter |  |  |  |  | astir *property* | tree rules |
| 10 | **shadow** |  | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: 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 148](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/14/148/)
- next →: [sentence 150](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/14/150/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XIII. DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/14/)