---
title: All pirates are superstitious, and Cookson cried, “They do say the s… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: All pirates are superstitious, and Cookson cried, “They do say the surest sign a ship’s accurst is when there’s one on board more than can be accounted for.” Who acts: pirates, Cookson. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XV. “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”, with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter XV. “HOOK OR ME THIS TIME”, sentence 98

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All pirates are superstitious, and Cookson cried, “They do say the surest sign a ship’s accurst is when there’s one on board more than can be accounted for.”

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**Who acts:** pirates, Cookson · **What happens:** be, cry, say, account · **To what, where:** surest sign · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (pirates, Cookson), 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:pg16:16:98
# text = All pirates are superstitious, and Cookson cried, “They do say the surest sign a ship’s accurst is when there’s one on board more than can be accounted for.”
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	pirates	pirate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	superstitious	superstitious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	Cookson	Cookson	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	surest	sure	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	16	amod	_	_
16	sign	sign	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	ship	ship	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	’s	's	PART	POS	_	18	case	_	_
20	accurst	accurst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	appos	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
22	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	24	mark	_	_
23	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	24	expl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
25	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	obj	_	_
26	on	on	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
27	board	board	ADP	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
28	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp|ExtPos=ADV	32	advmod	_	_
29	than	than	ADP	IN	_	28	fixed	_	_
30	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	accounted	account	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	25	acl	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | all pirates |  |  |  |  | superstitious *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | Cookson |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present · do-support | pirates *= pirate* | the surest sign |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent sign=Topic |
| 4 | **account** *in a quote* | can · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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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