---
title: It was the colour of milk; but the children did not have their fathe… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: It was the colour of milk; but the children did not have their father’s sense of humour, and they looked at him reproachfully as he poured the medicine into Nana’s bowl. Who acts: milk, children, father. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter II. THE SHADOW, with its dependency tree and 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/3/146/)

<!-- 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 II. THE SHADOW](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/3/) / 146

# Peter Pan, Chapter II. THE SHADOW, sentence 146

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was the colour of milk; but the children did not have their father’s sense of humour, and they looked at him reproachfully as he poured the medicine into Nana’s bowl.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** milk, children, father · **What happens:** be, not have, look, pour, sense · **To what, where:** colour, sense, medicine, bowl, humour

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter II. THE SHADOW. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (milk, children, father), 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:pg16:3:146
# text = It was the colour of milk; but the children did not have their father’s sense of humour, and they looked at him reproachfully as he poured the medicine into Nana’s bowl.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	colour	colour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
11	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	sense	sense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	humour	humour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obl	_	_
26	reproachfully	reproachfully	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	poured	pour	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	advcl	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	medicine	medicine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
32	into	into	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
33	Nana	Nana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	35	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	’s	's	PART	POS	_	33	case	_	_
35	bowl	bowl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | milk | the colour |  |  |  | of milk | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **have** | past · do-support | the children | children's father's sense of humour |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Patient |
| 3 | **look** | past | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | at father; reproachfully *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at he=Theme |
| 4 | **pour** | past | father | the medicine |  | Nana's bowl |  |  | vn pour-9.5 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent medicine=Theme into bowl=Destination |
| 5 | **sense** |  | children's father | humour |  |  |  |  | nom sense «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient |

<!-- .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 145](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/3/145/)
- next →: [sentence 147](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/3/147/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter II. THE SHADOW](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/3/)