---
title: “Yo ho, yo ho, the scratching cat, Its tails are nine, you know, And… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “Yo ho, yo ho, the scratching cat, Its tails are nine, you know, And when they’re writ upon your back—” Who acts: tails, you. 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 clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter XV. “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”, sentence 50

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“Yo ho, yo ho, the scratching cat, Its tails are nine, you know, And when they’re writ upon your back—”

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**Who acts:** tails, you · **What happens:** be, know · **To what, where:** nine, writ

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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 (tails, you), 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:pg16:16:50
# text = “Yo ho, yo ho, the scratching cat, Its tails are nine, you know, And when they’re writ upon your back—”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Yo	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Slng	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	ho	ho	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	yo	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Slng	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	ho	ho	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	scratching	scratching	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	nine	nine	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’re	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
24	writ	writ	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
25	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | cat's tails | nine |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **know** *in a quote* | present | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **does** *in a quote* | present | tails *= tail* | writ |  |  |  | upon your back | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot writ=Theme |

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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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