---
title: You never exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: You never exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all depended upon Peter’s whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of a game, but he could not stodge just to feel stodgy, which is what most children like better than anything else; the next best thing being 
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND, sentence 29

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You never exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all depended upon Peter’s whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of a game, but he could not stodge just to feel stodgy, which is what most children like better than anything else; the next best thing being to talk about it.

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**Who acts:** You, real meal, make, it, meal, next best thing · **What happens:** not know, be, believe, depend, eat, not stodge · **To what, where:** real meal, part · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (You, real meal, make, it), 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:pg16:8:29
# text = You never exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all depended upon Peter’s whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of a game, but he could not stodge just to feel stodgy, which is what most children like better than anything else; the next best thing being to talk about it.
1	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
3	exactly	exactly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	8	expl	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	real	real	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	meal	meal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
13	just	just	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	make	make	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	all	all	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	depended	depend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	ccomp	_	_
22	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
25	whim	whim	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	eat	eat	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	really	really	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
34	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
35	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
36	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	cop	_	_
37	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	advcl	_	_
38	of	of	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	game	game	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	46	punct	_	_
42	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	46	cc	_	_
43	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	46	nsubj	_	_
44	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	46	aux	_	_
45	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	46	advmod	_	_
46	stodge	stodge	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
47	just	just	ADV	RB	_	49	advmod	_	_
48	to	to	PART	TO	_	49	mark	_	_
49	feel	feel	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	46	xcomp	_	_
50	stodgy	stodgy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	49	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	54	punct	_	_
52	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	54	nsubj	_	_
53	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	54	cop	_	_
54	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	50	parataxis	_	_
55	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	56	amod	_	_
56	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	58	nsubj	_	_
57	like	like	ADP	IN	_	58	case	_	_
58	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	54	acl:relcl	_	_
59	than	than	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
60	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	58	obl	_	_
61	else	else	ADV	RB	_	60	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
62	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	69	punct	_	_
63	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	66	det	_	_
64	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	66	amod	_	_
65	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	66	amod	_	_
66	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	69	nsubj	_	_
67	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	69	cop	_	_
68	to	to	PART	TO	_	69	mark	_	_
69	talk	talk	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
70	about	about	ADP	IN	_	71	case	_	_
71	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	69	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
72	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **know** | past | You |  |  |  |  | exactly *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **be** | would | a real meal |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **believe** | infinitive | a make | a real meal *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **depend** | past | it |  |  |  |  | upon Peter's whim; all *property* | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **eat** | could | make |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **eat** | infinitive | make *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | meal | part |  |  |  | of a game | tree rules |
| 8 | **not** **stodge** | could | make |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **feel** | to-infinitive | make *not said here* |  |  |  |  | stodgy *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 10 | **is a** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **is** | gerund | the next best thing |  |  |  |  | about meal; talk *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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