---
title: This ill-luck had given a gentle melancholy to his countenance, but… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: This ill-luck had given a gentle melancholy to his countenance, but instead of souring his nature had sweetened it, so that he was quite the humblest of the boys. Who acts: Neverland. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter V. THE ISLAND COME TRUE, with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter V. THE ISLAND COME TRUE, sentence 16

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This ill-luck had given a gentle melancholy to his countenance, but instead of souring his nature had sweetened it, so that he was quite the humblest of the boys.

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**Who acts:** Neverland · **What happens:** give, sour, sweeten, be · **To what, where:** ill luck, nature

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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 (Neverland), 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:pg16:6:16
# text = This ill-luck had given a gentle melancholy to his countenance, but instead of souring his nature had sweetened it, so that he was quite the humblest of the boys.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
2	ill	ill	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	gentle	gentle	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	melancholy	melancholy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
15	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	17	mark	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	souring	sour	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	advcl	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	sweetened	sweeten	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
22	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	30	case	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	fixed	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
27	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
28	quite	quite	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	30	det:predet	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	humblest	humble	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	6	parataxis	_	_
31	of	of	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	30	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past · perfect · passive |  | this ill luck |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient melancholy=Theme |
| 2 | **sour** | gerund |  | Neverland's nature |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent nature=Patient |
| 3 | **sweeten** | past · perfect |  | nature |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **is** | past | Neverland |  |  |  |  | of the boys; humble *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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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