---
title: They were not nearly so elegant as Peter, they could not help kickin… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: They were not nearly so elegant as Peter, they could not help kicking a little, but their heads were bobbing against the ceiling, and there is almost nothing so delicious as that. Who acts: charges, heads, nothing. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter III. COME AWAY, COME AWAY!, with i
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter III. COME AWAY, COME AWAY!, sentence 296

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They were not nearly so elegant as Peter, they could not help kicking a little, but their heads were bobbing against the ceiling, and there is almost nothing so delicious as that.

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**Who acts:** charges, heads, nothing · **What happens:** not be, not help, kick, bob, be · **To what, where:** little, ceiling

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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 (charges, heads, nothing), 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:pg16:4:296
# text = They were not nearly so elegant as Peter, they could not help kicking a little, but their heads were bobbing against the ceiling, and there is almost nothing so delicious as that.
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	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	elegant	elegant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	as	as	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
14	kicking	kick	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	xcomp	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	bobbing	bob	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
23	against	against	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	ceiling	ceiling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	29	expl	_	_
29	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
30	almost	almost	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	29	nsubj	_	_
32	so	so	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
33	delicious	delicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
34	as	as	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
35	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is** | past | charges *= charge* |  |  |  |  | as Peter; elegant, nearly *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **help** | could | charges *= charge* |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 3 | **kick** *not said to happen* | gerund | charges *= charge* *not said here* | a little |  |  |  |  | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent little=Patient |
| 4 | **bob** | past · progressive | charges's heads |  |  | the ceiling |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme against ceiling=Location |
| 5 | **be** | present | nothing |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «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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