---
title: “My child,” the mother cried, “why did you not tell me of this befor… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “My child,” the mother cried, “why did you not tell me of this before?” Who acts: child, you. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter I. PETER BREAKS THROUGH, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter I. PETER BREAKS THROUGH, sentence 109

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“My child,” the mother cried, “why did you not tell me of this before?”

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**Who acts:** child, you · **What happens:** cry, not tell · **To what, where:** child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter I. PETER BREAKS THROUGH. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (child, 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:pg16:2:109
# text = “My child,” the mother cried, “why did you not tell me of this before?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	15	advmod	_	_
12	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	ccomp	_	_
16	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	15	obl	_	_
19	before	before	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | My child |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | past · do-support | you |  | My child *= child* |  |  | of this; before *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |

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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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