---
title: “I say, how do you do it?” asked John, rubbing his knee. — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “I say, how do you do it?” asked John, rubbing his knee. Who acts: I, John. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter III. COME AWAY, COME AWAY!, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter III. COME AWAY, COME AWAY!, sentence 276

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“I say, how do you do it?” asked John, rubbing his knee.

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**Who acts:** I, John · **What happens:** say, do, ask, rub · **To what, where:** conceit, John, knee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (I, John), 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:pg16:4:276
# text = “I say, how do you do it?” asked John, rubbing his knee.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
6	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
12	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
13	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	rubbing	rub	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	advcl	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	knee	knee	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | present · do-support | John | conceit |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | I *not said here* |  | John |  |  |  | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent john=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **rub** | gerund | I *not said here* | John's knee |  |  |  |  | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent knee=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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