---
title: They could not follow him in this with much success, so perhaps it w… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: They could not follow him in this with much success, so perhaps it was rather like showing off, especially as he kept looking behind to see how many tails they missed. Who acts: John, success, Peter. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, with its dependency tree and the 
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, sentence 25

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They could not follow him in this with much success, so perhaps it was rather like showing off, especially as he kept looking behind to see how many tails they missed.

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**Who acts:** John, success, Peter · **What happens:** not follow, be, keep, look, see, miss · **To what, where:** Peter, this, many tails

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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 (John, success, Peter), 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:pg16:5:25
# text = They could not follow him in this with much success, so perhaps it was rather like showing off, especially as he kept looking behind to see how many tails they missed.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obl	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	success	success	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	so	so	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	rather	rather	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
17	like	like	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	showing	show	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
19	off	off	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	especially	especially	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	kept	keep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
25	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	xcomp	_	_
26	behind	behind	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
29	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
30	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	tails	tail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obj	_	_
32	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	missed	miss	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **follow** | could | John | Peter |  | this |  | with much success | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme in this=Trajectory |
| 2 | **is** | past | success |  |  |  |  | perhaps, show *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **keep** | past | Peter |  |  |  |  | especially *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **look** | gerund | Peter *not said here* |  |  |  |  | behind *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive | Peter *not said here* | many tails |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tail=Stimulus |
| 6 | **miss** | past | John | many tails *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer tail=Stimulus |

<!-- .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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