---
title: I expect he was right, for fairies don’t live long, but they are so… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: I expect he was right, for fairies don’t live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them. Who acts: I, Peter, fairies, short time. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XVII. WHEN WENDY GREW UP, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter XVII. WHEN WENDY GREW UP, sentence 102

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
I expect he was right, for fairies don’t live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, Peter, fairies, short time · **What happens:** expect, be, not live, seem · **To what, where:** fairies

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XVII. WHEN WENDY GREW UP. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, Peter, fairies, short time), 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:pg16:18:102
# text = I expect he was right, for fairies don’t live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	expect	expect	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	right	right	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
7	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	fairies	fairy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
9	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
12	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
17	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	seems	seem	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	while	while	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **expect** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | past | Peter |  |  |  |  | right *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **live** | present · do-support | fairies |  |  |  |  | long *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **is** | present | fairies *= fairy* |  |  |  |  | little *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **seem** | present | a short time |  | fairies *= fairy* |  | while |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=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.

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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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