---
title: “Much good,” he said bitterly, “my wearing myself to the bone trying… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “Much good,” he said bitterly, “my wearing myself to the bone trying to be funny in this house.” Who acts: George. 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 155

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“Much good,” he said bitterly, “my wearing myself to the bone trying to be funny in this house.”

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**Who acts:** George · **What happens:** say, wear, try, be · **To what, where:** George, house · **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 (George), 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:pg16:3:155
# text = “Much good,” he said bitterly, “my wearing myself to the bone trying to be funny in this house.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Much	much	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
8	bitterly	bitterly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	wearing	wear	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
13	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	cop	_	_
20	funny	funny	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	xcomp	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	23	det	_	_
23	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | George |  |  |  |  | bitterly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **wear** *in a quote* | gerund | George | George |  |  |  | to the bone | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent myself=Source |
| 3 | **try** *in a quote* | gerund | George *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | George *not said here* |  |  | this house |  | funny *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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