---
title: It was an opportunity, his wife felt, for telling him about the boy. — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: It was an opportunity, his wife felt, for telling him about the boy. Who acts: romp, wife. 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 87

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It was an opportunity, his wife felt, for telling him about the boy.

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**Who acts:** romp, wife · **What happens:** be, feel, tell · **To what, where:** opportunity, Mr. · **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 (romp, wife), 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:pg16:3:87
# text = It was an opportunity, his wife felt, for telling him about the boy.
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	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	opportunity	opportunity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	felt	feel	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | romp | a opportunity |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **feel** | past | Mr.'s wife | a opportunity *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opportunity=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | Mr.'s wife *not said here* |  | Mr. |  |  | about the boy | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient about boy=Topic |

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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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