---
title: “It was only a joke,” he roared, while she comforted her boys, and W… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “It was only a joke,” he roared, while she comforted her boys, and Wendy hugged Nana. Who acts: bowl, George, Mrs., Wendy. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter II. THE SHADOW, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter II. THE SHADOW, sentence 154

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“It was only a joke,” he roared, while she comforted her boys, and Wendy hugged Nana.

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**Who acts:** bowl, George, Mrs., Wendy · **What happens:** be, roar, comfort, hug · **To what, where:** joke, boys, Nana · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (bowl, George, Mrs., Wendy), 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:pg16:3:154
# text = “It was only a joke,” he roared, while she comforted her boys, and Wendy hugged Nana.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	joke	joke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	roared	roar	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	comforted	comfort	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	Wendy	Wendy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	hugged	hug	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
21	Nana	Nana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *in a quote* | past | bowl | a joke |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **roar** | past | George |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
| 3 | **comfort** | past | Mrs. | Mrs.'s boys |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus boy=Experiencer |
| 4 | **hug** | past | Wendy | Nana |  |  |  |  | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nana=Co-Agent |

<!-- .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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