---
title: They were only boys, and they went white as they saw Jukes and Cecco… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: They were only boys, and they went white as they saw Jukes and Cecco preparing the fatal plank. Who acts: mothers, Jukes. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP, sentence 106

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They were only boys, and they went white as they saw Jukes and Cecco preparing the fatal plank.

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**Who acts:** mothers, Jukes · **What happens:** be, go, see, prepare · **To what, where:** boys, Jukes, fatal plank

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (mothers, Jukes), 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:pg16:15:106
# text = They were only boys, and they went white as they saw Jukes and Cecco preparing the fatal plank.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
13	Jukes	Jukes	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	Cecco	Cecco	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
16	preparing	prepare	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	acl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	fatal	fatal	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	plank	plank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | mothers *= mother* | boys |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | past | mothers *= mother* | boys *not said here* |  |  |  | white *property* | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location boy=Theme |
| 3 | **see** | past | mothers *= mother* | Jukes and Cecco |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer jukes=Stimulus |
| 4 | **prepare** | gerund | Jukes and Cecco *not said here* | the fatal plank |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plank=Patient |

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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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