---
title: Sometimes he poised himself in the air, listening intently, with his… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Sometimes he poised himself in the air, listening intently, with his hand to his ear, and again he would stare down with eyes so bright that they seemed to bore two holes to earth. Who acts: Bell, eyes. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, with its dependency tree and t
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter IV. THE FLIGHT, sentence 98

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Sometimes he poised himself in the air, listening intently, with his hand to his ear, and again he would stare down with eyes so bright that they seemed to bore two holes to earth.

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**Who acts:** Bell, eyes · **What happens:** poise, listen, stare down, seem, bore · **To what, where:** Bell, air, two holes

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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 (Bell, eyes), 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:pg16:5:98
# text = Sometimes he poised himself in the air, listening intently, with his hand to his ear, and again he would stare down with eyes so bright that they seemed to bore two holes to earth.
1	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	poised	poise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	listening	listen	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
10	intently	intently	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
20	again	again	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	stare	stare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
24	down	down	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	_
27	so	so	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	bright	bright	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	advcl	_	_
29	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
31	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
32	to	to	PART	TO	_	33	mark	_	_
33	bore	bore	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	31	xcomp	_	_
34	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	35	nummod	_	_
35	holes	hole	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **poise** | past | Bell | Bell |  | the air |  | sometimes *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **listen** | gerund | Bell *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with Bell's hand to Bell's ear; intently *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **stare down** | would | Bell |  |  |  | again | with eyes; down *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **seem** | past | eyes *= eye* |  |  |  |  |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 5 | **bore** | to-infinitive | eyes *= eye* *not said here* | two holes |  |  |  | to earth | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus hole=Experiencer |

<!-- .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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