---
title: He asked if there were many pirates on the island just now, and Pete… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: He asked if there were many pirates on the island just now, and Peter said he had never known so many. Who acts: tree, many pirates, Peter. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, sentence 117

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He asked if there were many pirates on the island just now, and Peter said he had never known so many.

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**Who acts:** tree, many pirates, Peter · **What happens:** ask, be, say, not know · **To what, where:** Peter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tree, many pirates, Peter), 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:pg16:5:117
# text = He asked if there were many pirates on the island just now, and Peter said he had never known so many.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
6	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	pirates	pirate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
8	on	on	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
11	just	just	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
20	known	know	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	ccomp	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | tree |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **be** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | many pirates on the island |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Peter |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **know** | past · perfect · passive |  | Peter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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