---
title: “In a way,” said Smee, “it’s sort of a compliment.” — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “In a way,” said Smee, “it’s sort of a compliment.” Who acts: Smee, way. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter V. THE ISLAND COME TRUE, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter V. THE ISLAND COME TRUE, sentence 126

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“In a way,” said Smee, “it’s sort of a compliment.”

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**Who acts:** Smee, way · **What happens:** say, sort · **To what, where:** way, compliment · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter V. THE ISLAND COME TRUE. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Smee, way), 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:pg16:6:126
# text = “In a way,” said Smee, “it’s sort of a compliment.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
7	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	Smee	Smee	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	’s	's	PART	POS	_	11	case	_	_
13	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	compliment	compliment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Smee |  |  | a way |  |  | vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in way=Manner |
| 2 | **sort** *in a quote* |  | way | a compliment |  |  |  |  | nom sort «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient |

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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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