---
title: If they broke down in their make-believe he rapped them on the knuck… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: If they broke down in their make-believe he rapped them on the knuckles. Who acts: boys, Peter. 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/pg16/7/137/)

<!-- 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/) / 137

# Peter Pan, Chapter VI. THE LITTLE HOUSE, sentence 137

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If they broke down in their make-believe he rapped them on the knuckles.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** boys, Peter · **What happens:** break down, believe, rap, make · **To what, where:** make, boys · **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 (boys, Peter), 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:pg16:7:137
# text = If they broke down in their make-believe he rapped them on the knuckles.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	broke	break	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	make	make	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	believe	believe	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	rapped	rap	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	ccomp	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	knuckles	knuckle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break down** | past | boys *= boy* |  |  | boys's make |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **believe** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 3 | **rap** | past | Peter | boys *= boy* |  |  |  | on the knuckles | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent they=Instrument on knuckle=Patient |
| 4 | **make** |  | boys *= boy* |  |  |  |  |  | nom make «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 136](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/7/136/)
- next →: [sentence 138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/7/138/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VI. THE LITTLE HOUSE](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/7/)