---
title: He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is pr… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of his diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his demeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew. Who acts: man, more sinister. A sentenc
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter V. THE ISLAND COME TRUE, sentence 43

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He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of his diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his demeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew.

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**Who acts:** man, more sinister · **What happens:** not be, be, swear, show, distinguish · **To what, where:** more sinister, truest test, one, man, demeanour

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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 (man, more sinister), 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:pg16:6:43
# text = He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of his diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his demeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	5	amod	_	_
5	sinister	sinister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	nsubj	_	_
6	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
7	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	11	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	most	most	ADV	RBS	Degree=Sup	11	advmod	_	_
11	polite	polite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
15	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	truest	true	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	18	amod	_	_
18	test	test	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	breeding	breeding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	elegance	elegance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	diction	diction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	even	even	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
30	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
31	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	swearing	swear	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	24	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
35	no	no	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
36	less	less	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	33	advmod	_	_
37	than	than	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	distinction	distinction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
41	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	42	nmod:poss	_	_
42	demeanour	demeanour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
43	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
44	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
45	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	iobj	_	_
46	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	44	obj	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
48	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	50	det	_	_
49	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	50	amod	_	_
50	cast	cast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nmod	_	_
51	from	from	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	53	nmod:poss	_	_
53	crew	crew	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	44	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | man | more sinister and the truest test and the elegance of man's diction |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | past | man |  |  |  |  | polite *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | present | more sinister and the truest test and the elegance of man's diction | the truest test |  |  |  | of breeding; probably *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **swear** | past · progressive | man |  |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **show** | past | more sinister and the truest test and the elegance of man's diction | one of a different cast from man's crew | man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient one=Topic |
| 6 | **distinguish** |  |  | man's demeanour |  |  |  |  | nom distinction «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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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