---
title: They were not only new trousers, but they were the first he had ever… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: They were not only new trousers, but they were the first he had ever had with braid on them, and he had had to bite his lip to prevent the tears coming. Who acts: trousers, most, new trousers, tears. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter II. THE SHADOW, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter II. THE SHADOW, sentence 81

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were not only new trousers, but they were the first he had ever had with braid on them, and he had had to bite his lip to prevent the tears coming.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** trousers, most, new trousers, tears · **What happens:** not be, be, have, bite, prevent, come · **To what, where:** new trousers, lip, tears

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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 (trousers, most, new trousers, tears), 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:pg16:3:81
# text = They were not only new trousers, but they were the first he had ever had with braid on them, and he had had to bite his lip to prevent the tears coming.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	trousers	trousers	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	first	first	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	6	parataxis	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	16	advmod	_	_
16	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	braid	braid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	had	have	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	acl:relcl	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	bite	bite	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	lip	lip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	prevent	prevent	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
34	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	33	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | trousers | new trousers |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | trousers |  |  |  |  | first *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | past · perfect | most |  |  |  | ever | with braid on trousers | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | past · perfect | most | new trousers *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **bite** | to-infinitive | new trousers *not said here* | most's lip |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lip=Patient |
| 6 | **prevent** | to-infinitive | new trousers *not said here* | the tears |  |  |  |  | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer tear=Theme |
| 7 | **come** | gerund | the tears *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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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