---
title: But Wendy, who saw that they must break the joyous news more gently,… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: But Wendy, who saw that they must break the joyous news more gently, had a better plan. Who acts: Wendy, mothers. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XVI. THE RETURN HOME, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter XVI. THE RETURN HOME, sentence 147

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But Wendy, who saw that they must break the joyous news more gently, had a better plan.

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**Who acts:** Wendy, mothers · **What happens:** see, break, have · **To what, where:** joyous news, better plan

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XVI. THE RETURN HOME. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Wendy, mothers), 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:pg16:17:147
# text = But Wendy, who saw that they must break the joyous news more gently, had a better plan.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	Wendy	Wendy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	joyous	joyous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	news	news	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	14	advmod	_	_
14	gently	gently	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	19	amod	_	_
19	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Wendy |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **break** | must | mothers *= mother* | the joyous news |  |  |  | gently *property* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer news=Patient |
| 3 | **have** | past | Wendy *not said here* | a better plan |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plan=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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