---
title: “I was crying because I can’t get my shadow to stick on. — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “I was crying because I can’t get my shadow to stick on. Who acts: Peter, my. 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 52

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“I was crying because I can’t get my shadow to stick on.

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**Who acts:** Peter, my · **What happens:** cry, not get, stick on, shadow · **To what, where:** shadow

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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 (Peter, my), 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:pg16:4:52
# text = “I was crying because I can’t get my shadow to stick on.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	ca	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
10	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	stick	stick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	advcl	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cry** *speech: express* *in a quote* | past · progressive | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **get** *in a quote* | can | Peter | my shadow |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer shadow=Stimulus |
| 3 | **stick on** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Peter *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **shadow** *in a quote* |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom shadow «state transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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