---
title: “Nothing, precious,” she said; “they are the eyes a mother leaves be… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “Nothing, precious,” she said; “they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children.” Who acts: Mrs., lights, eyes. 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 188

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“Nothing, precious,” she said; “they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children.”

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**Who acts:** Mrs., lights, eyes · **What happens:** say, be, leave, guard · **To what, where:** eyes, children · **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 (Mrs., lights, eyes), 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:pg16:3:188
# text = “Nothing, precious,” she said; “they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	precious	precious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nsubj	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	leaves	leave	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	behind	behind	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	guard	guard	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Mrs. |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | lights *= light* | the eyes |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **leave** *in a quote* | present | the eyes |  |  |  |  | behind Mrs. | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent behind she=Location |
| 4 | **guard** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the eyes *not said here* |  | Mrs.'s children |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Beneficiary |

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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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