---
title: By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense. — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense. Who acts: way. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND, sentence 57

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By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense.

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**Who acts:** way · **What happens:** write · **To what, where:** questions, past tense

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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 (way), 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:pg16:8:57
# text = By the way, the questions were all written in the past tense.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	questions	question	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux:pass	_	_
8	all	all	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	written	write	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	past	past	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	tense	tense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **write** | past · passive | the way | the questions |  | the past tense |  | all *property* | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent subject=Theme in tense=Destination |

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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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