---
title: It consisted in pretending not to have adventures, in doing the sort… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: It consisted in pretending not to have adventures, in doing the sort of thing John and Michael had been doing all their lives, sitting on stools flinging balls in the air, pushing each other, going out for walks and coming back without having killed so much as a grizzly. Who acts: interest, sort. A 
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND, sentence 61

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It consisted in pretending not to have adventures, in doing the sort of thing John and Michael had been doing all their lives, sitting on stools flinging balls in the air, pushing each other, going out for walks and coming back without having killed so much as a grizzly.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** interest, sort · **What happens:** consist, pretend, not have, do, sit, fling · **To what, where:** adventures, lives, stools, balls, air, each

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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 (interest, sort), 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:pg16:8:61
# text = It consisted in pretending not to have adventures, in doing the sort of thing John and Michael had been doing all their lives, sitting on stools flinging balls in the air, pushing each other, going out for walks and coming back without having killed so much as a grizzly.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	consisted	consist	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
4	pretending	pretend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
8	adventures	adventure	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sort	sort	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	John	John	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	appos	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	Michael	Michael	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	aux	_	_
21	doing	do	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
22	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	24	det:predet	_	_
23	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	lives	life	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
26	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	21	conj	_	_
27	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	stools	stool	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
29	flinging	fling	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	26	advcl	_	_
30	balls	ball	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obj	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
35	pushing	push	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	21	conj	_	_
36	each	each	DET	DT	ExtPos=PRON|PronType=Rcp	35	obj	_	_
37	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
39	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
40	out	out	ADP	RP	_	39	compound:prt	_	_
41	for	for	ADP	IN	_	42	case	_	_
42	walks	walk	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	obl	_	_
43	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
44	coming	come	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	conj	_	_
45	back	back	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
46	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
47	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	44	advcl	_	_
48	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	47	xcomp	_	_
49	so	so	ADV	RB	_	50	advmod	_	_
50	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	48	obj	_	_
51	as	as	ADP	IN	_	53	case	_	_
52	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	53	det	_	_
53	grizzly	grizzly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **consist** | past | interest |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pretend** | gerund | interest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **have** | to-infinitive | interest *not said here* | adventures |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent adventure=Patient |
| 4 | **do** | gerund | interest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **do** | past · perfect · progressive | the sort of thing | Adventures's lives |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Eventuality |
| 6 | **sit** | gerund | the sort of thing *not said here* |  |  | stools |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on stool=Location |
| 7 | **fling** | gerund | the sort of thing *not said here* | balls |  | the air |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent ball=Theme in air=Destination |
| 8 | **push** | gerund | the sort of thing *not said here* | each |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent each=Theme |
| 9 | **go out** | gerund | interest *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for walks | vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 10 | **come back** | gerund | interest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 11 | **have** | gerund | interest *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 12 | **kill** | participle | interest *not said here* | much |  |  |  | as a grizzly | vn spend\_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent much=Duration as grizzly=Attribute |
| 13 | **sort** |  |  | thing |  |  |  |  | nom sort «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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