---
title: “Do be more polite to him,” Wendy whispered to John, when they were… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “Do be more polite to him,” Wendy whispered to John, when they were playing “Follow my Leader.” Who acts: Wendy, John. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/5/22/)

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# Peter Pan, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, sentence 22

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“Do be more polite to him,” Wendy whispered to John, when they were playing “Follow my Leader.”

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**Who acts:** Wendy, John · **What happens:** be, whisper, play, follow · **To what, where:** Peter, John, Leader · **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 (Wendy, 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:pg16:5:22
# text = “Do be more polite to him,” Wendy whispered to John, when they were playing “Follow my Leader.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Do	do	AUX	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	cop	_	_
4	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	5	advmod	_	_
5	polite	polite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
10	Wendy	Wendy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	whispered	whisper	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	parataxis	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	Follow	follow	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	18	parataxis	_	_
21	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	Leader	leader	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** *in a quote* | infinitive · do-support |  |  | Peter |  |  | polite *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **whisper** *speech: assert* | past | Wendy |  | John |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to john=Recipient |
| 3 | **play** | past · progressive | John |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **follow** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | my Leader |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leader=Theme |

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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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