---
title: His way was to pursue birds who had food in their mouths suitable fo… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: His way was to pursue birds who had food in their mouths suitable for humans and snatch it from them; then the birds would follow and snatch it back; and they would all go chasing each other gaily for miles, parting at last with mutual expressions of good-will. Who acts: way, birds, John. A sentence
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/5/13/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Peter Pan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/) / [Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/5/) / 13

# Peter Pan, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, sentence 13

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His way was to pursue birds who had food in their mouths suitable for humans and snatch it from them; then the birds would follow and snatch it back; and they would all go chasing each other gaily for miles, parting at last with mutual expressions of good-will.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** way, birds, John · **What happens:** be, have, snatch, follow, snatch back, go · **To what, where:** food, mouths, way, last

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (way, birds, John), 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:pg16:5:13
# text = His way was to pursue birds who had food in their mouths suitable for humans and snatch it from them; then the birds would follow and snatch it back; and they would all go chasing each other gaily for miles, parting at last with mutual expressions of good-will.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	pursue	pursue	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
7	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	mouths	mouth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
13	suitable	suitable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	humans	human	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	snatch	snatch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	from	from	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
22	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	26	advmod	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
25	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
27	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
28	snatch	snatch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	conj	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	obj	_	_
30	back	back	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	36	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
33	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
34	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	36	aux	_	_
35	all	all	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
37	chasing	chase	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	36	xcomp	_	_
38	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	40	nsubj	_	_
39	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	gaily	gaily	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	ccomp	_	_
41	for	for	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	miles	mile	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
44	parting	part	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	37	conj	_	_
45	at	at	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	44	obl	_	_
47	with	with	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	mutual	mutual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	amod	_	_
49	expressions	expression	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	44	obl	_	_
50	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
51	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	53	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
52	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	51	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	49	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Peter's way |  |  |  |  | pursue *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | birds | food |  | John's mouths |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient |
| 3 | **snatch** | present | birds *not said here* | way |  |  |  | from John | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent it=Theme from they=Source |
| 4 | **follow** | would | the birds |  |  |  | then |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **snatch back** | infinitive | the birds *not said here* | way |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 6 | **go** | would | John |  |  |  |  | all *property* | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 7 | **chase** | gerund | John *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **part** | gerund | John *not said here* |  |  | last |  | with mutual expressions | vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient with expression=Co-Patient |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/5/12/)
- next →: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/5/14/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/5/)