---
title: Man to man they were the stronger; but they fought on the defensive… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Man to man they were the stronger; but they fought on the defensive only, which enabled the boys to hunt in pairs and choose their quarry. Who acts: Man, pirates. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XV. “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/16/141/)

<!-- 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 XV. “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/16/) / 141

# Peter Pan, Chapter XV. “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”, sentence 141

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Man to man they were the stronger; but they fought on the defensive only, which enabled the boys to hunt in pairs and choose their quarry.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Man, pirates · **What happens:** be, fight, enable, hunt, choose · **To what, where:** defensive, boys, pairs, quarry

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XV. “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Man, pirates), 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:pg16:16:141
# text = Man to man they were the stronger; but they fought on the defensive only, which enabled the boys to hunt in pairs and choose their quarry.
1	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	TO	_	3	case	_	_
3	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nmod	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	stronger	strong	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	fought	fight	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	defensive	defensive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	obl	_	_
15	only	only	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
18	enabled	enable	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	hunt	hunt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	pairs	pair	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obl	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	choose	choose	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	conj	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	quarry	quarry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Man to man |  |  |  |  | strong *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **fight** | past | pirates *= pirate* |  |  | the defensive |  |  | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **enable** | past |  | the boys |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hunt** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | pairs |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent in pair=Location |
| 5 | **choose** | present |  | pirates's quarry |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent quarry=Theme |

<!-- .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 140](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/16/140/)
- next →: [sentence 142](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/16/142/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XV. “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/16/)