---
title: Would it not serve them jolly well right if they came back and found… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Would it not serve them jolly well right if they came back and found that their parents were spending the week-end in the country? Who acts: hurry, beds, parents. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XVI. THE RETURN HOME, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/17/24/)

<!-- 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 XVI. THE RETURN HOME](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/17/) / 24

# Peter Pan, Chapter XVI. THE RETURN HOME, sentence 24

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Would it not serve them jolly well right if they came back and found that their parents were spending the week-end in the country?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hurry, beds, parents · **What happens:** not serve, come back, find, spend · **To what, where:** beds, week end, country · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (hurry, beds, parents), 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:pg16:17:24
# text = Would it not serve them jolly well right if they came back and found that their parents were spending the week-end in the country?
1	Would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	jolly	jolly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
7	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	fixed	_	_
8	right	right	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
12	back	back	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	parents	parent	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	spending	spend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	ccomp	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
21	week	week	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	21	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
24	in	in	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **serve** | would | hurry | beds *= bed* |  |  |  | jolly *property* | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Attribute |
| 2 | **come back** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | beds *= bed* |  |  |  |  | right *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | past | beds *= bed* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **spend** | past · progressive | beds's parents | the week end |  | the country |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent end=Asset |

<!-- .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 23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/17/23/)
- next →: [sentence 25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/17/25/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter XVI. THE RETURN HOME](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/17/)