---
title: They were awfully nice little night-lights, and one cannot help wish… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: They were awfully nice little night-lights, and one cannot help wishing that they could have kept awake to see Peter; but Wendy’s light blinked and gave such a yawn that the other two yawned also, and before they could close their mouths all the three went out. Who acts: lights, one, nice little nig
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter III. COME AWAY, COME AWAY!, sentence 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were awfully nice little night-lights, and one cannot help wishing that they could have kept awake to see Peter; but Wendy’s light blinked and gave such a yawn that the other two yawned also, and before they could close their mouths all the three went out.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** lights, one, nice little night lights, light, three, Wendy · **What happens:** be, not help, wish, keep, see, blink · **To what, where:** nice little night lights, lights, Peter, yawn, mouths · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter III. COME AWAY, COME AWAY!. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (lights, one, nice little night lights, light), 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:pg16:4:2
# text = They were awfully nice little night-lights, and one cannot help wishing that they could have kept awake to see Peter; but Wendy’s light blinked and gave such a yawn that the other two yawned also, and before they could close their mouths all the three went out.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
3	awfully	awfully	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
4	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
6	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	lights	light	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
11	one	one	PRON	PRP	Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
14	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl:relcl	_	_
15	wishing	wish	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	xcomp	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux	_	_
20	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	ccomp	_	_
21	awake	awake	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	xcomp	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	advcl	_	_
24	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
27	Wendy	Wendy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’s	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
30	blinked	blink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
33	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	35	det:predet	_	_
34	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	yawn	yawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	32	obl	_	_
40	yawned	yawn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	39	acl	_	_
41	also	also	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
44	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
45	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
46	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	47	aux	_	_
47	close	close	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	advcl	_	_
48	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	49	nmod:poss	_	_
49	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	47	obj	_	_
50	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	53	det:predet	_	_
51	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	52	det	_	_
52	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	53	nsubj	_	_
53	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	conj	_	_
54	out	out	ADP	RP	_	53	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | lights *= light* | nice little night lights |  |  |  | awfully *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **help** | can | one | nice little night lights *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent light=Beneficiary clause=Theme |
| 3 | **wish** *not said to happen* | gerund | nice little night lights *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **keep** | could · perfect · passive |  | lights *= light* |  |  |  | awake *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive |  | Peter |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer peter=Stimulus |
| 6 | **blink** | past | Wendy's light |  |  |  |  |  | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **give** | past | Wendy's light *not said here* | such yawn |  |  |  | the other two *obl* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yawn=Theme |
| 8 | **yawn** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 9 | **close** | could | lights *= light* | lights's mouths |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouth=Patient |
| 10 | **go out** | past | the three |  |  |  |  |  | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 11 | **light** |  | Wendy |  |  |  |  |  | nom light «phenomenon transitive»: poss=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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