---
title: To see Peter doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could no… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: To see Peter doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could not help looking solemn at such times, to sit still seemed to him such a comic thing to do. Who acts: Peter, sort. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND, with its dependency tree and the pra
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
To see Peter doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could not help looking solemn at such times, to sit still seemed to him such a comic thing to do.

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**Who acts:** Peter, sort · **What happens:** see, do, be, not help, look, sit · **To what, where:** Peter, nothing, stool, great sight, comic thing, sort

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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 (Peter, 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:pg16:8:62
# text = To see Peter doing nothing on a stool was a great sight; he could not help looking solemn at such times, to sit still seemed to him such a comic thing to do.
1	To	to	PART	TO	_	2	mark	_	_
2	see	see	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	doing	do	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	xcomp	_	_
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	4	obj	_	_
6	on	on	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	stool	stool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
18	looking	look	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	xcomp	_	_
19	solemn	solemn	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	xcomp	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	sit	sit	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	17	conj	_	_
26	still	still	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	seemed	seem	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	ccomp	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obl	_	_
30	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	33	det:predet	_	_
31	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	comic	comic	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	xcomp	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | to-infinitive |  | Peter |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** | gerund | Peter *not said here* | nothing |  | a stool |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is a** | past |  | a great sight |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **help** | could | sort |  |  |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 5 | **look** *not said to happen* | gerund | sort *not said here* |  |  |  |  | solemn *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 6 | **sit** | to-infinitive | sort *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **seem** | past | sort *not said here* | such comic thing | sort |  | still |  | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Theme |
| 8 | **do** | to-infinitive | sort *not said here* | such comic thing *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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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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