---
title: The sound came steadily nearer; and in advance of it came this ghast… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: The sound came steadily nearer; and in advance of it came this ghastly thought, “The crocodile is about to board the ship!” Who acts: sound, ghastly thought, crocodile, advance. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP, sentence 145

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The sound came steadily nearer; and in advance of it came this ghastly thought, “The crocodile is about to board the ship!”

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**Who acts:** sound, ghastly thought, crocodile, advance · **What happens:** come, be, board, advance · **To what, where:** advance, ship

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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 (sound, ghastly thought, crocodile, advance), 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:pg16:15:145
# text = The sound came steadily nearer; and in advance of it came this ghastly thought, “The crocodile is about to board the ship!”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sound	sound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	steadily	steadily	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	nearer	near	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	advance	advance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
14	ghastly	ghastly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	thought	thought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
21	about	about	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	board	board	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the sound |  |  |  |  | near *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | this ghastly thought |  |  | advance of advance |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in advance=Location |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the crocodile |  |  |  |  | about *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **board** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the crocodile *not said here* | the ship |  |  |  |  | vn odge-46-1 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme ship=Location |
| 5 | **advance** |  | advance |  |  |  |  |  | nom advance «event intransitive»: of=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.

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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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