---
title: And then John would rub his eyes and mutter, “It is true, we did fly.” — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: And then John would rub his eyes and mutter, “It is true, we did fly.” Who acts: John, step, we. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VI. THE LITTLE HOUSE, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/7/103/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Peter Pan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/) / [Chapter VI. THE LITTLE HOUSE](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/7/) / 103

# Peter Pan, Chapter VI. THE LITTLE HOUSE, sentence 103

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And then John would rub his eyes and mutter, “It is true, we did fly.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** John, step, we · **What happens:** rub, mutter, be, fly · **To what, where:** eyes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VI. THE LITTLE HOUSE. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (John, step, we), 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:pg16:7:103
# text = And then John would rub his eyes and mutter, “It is true, we did fly.”
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
3	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	rub	rub	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	mutter	mutter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	14	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	fly	fly	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rub** | would | John | Michael's eyes |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **mutter** *speech: assert* | infinitive | John *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | step |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **fly** *in a quote* | past · do-support | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/7/102/)
- next →: [sentence 104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/7/104/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VI. THE LITTLE HOUSE](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/7/)