---
title: Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys mi… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys might eat it and perish; and how they placed it in one cunning spot after another; but always Wendy snatched it from the hands of her children, so that in time it lost its succulence, and became as hard as a stone, and was used as a m
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter VII. THE HOME UNDER THE GROUND, sentence 79

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys might eat it and perish; and how they placed it in one cunning spot after another; but always Wendy snatched it from the hands of her children, so that in time it lost its succulence, and became as hard as a stone, and was used as a missile, and Hook fell over it in the dark.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** we, boys, Wendy, life · **What happens:** tell, cook, eat, perish, place, snatch · **To what, where:** pirates, life, one cunning spot, hands, succulence · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (we, boys, Wendy, life), 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:pg16:8:79
# text = Or we could tell of that cake the pirates cooked so that the boys might eat it and perish; and how they placed it in one cunning spot after another; but always Wendy snatched it from the hands of her children, so that in time it lost its succulence, and became as hard as a stone, and was used as a missile, and Hook fell over it in the dark.
1	Or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	cake	cake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	pirates	pirate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
10	cooked	cook	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
11	so	so	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	perish	perish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
22	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
25	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
27	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
28	cunning	cunning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	spot	spot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
30	after	after	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	36	punct	_	_
33	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
34	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	36	advmod	_	_
35	Wendy	Wendy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	nsubj	_	_
36	snatched	snatch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	parataxis	_	_
37	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	from	from	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	36	obl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	nmod:poss	_	_
43	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
44	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
45	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	50	mark	_	_
46	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	45	fixed	_	_
47	in	in	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obl	_	_
49	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
50	lost	lose	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	conj	_	_
51	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	52	nmod:poss	_	_
52	succulence	succulence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
53	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
54	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
55	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
56	as	as	ADV	RB	_	57	advmod	_	_
57	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	xcomp	_	_
58	as	as	ADP	IN	_	60	case	_	_
59	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	60	det	_	_
60	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	57	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
61	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	64	punct	_	_
62	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	64	cc	_	_
63	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	64	aux:pass	_	_
64	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	conj	_	_
65	as	as	ADP	IN	_	67	case	_	_
66	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	67	det	_	_
67	missile	missile	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	64	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
68	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	70	punct	_	_
69	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	70	cc	_	_
70	Hook	hook	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
71	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	70	ccomp	_	_
72	over	over	ADP	IN	_	73	case	_	_
73	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	71	obl	_	_
74	in	in	ADP	IN	_	76	case	_	_
75	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	76	det	_	_
76	dark	dark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	71	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
77	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | could | we |  |  |  |  | of that cake and the pirates | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **cook** | participle |  | the pirates *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **eat** | might | the boys | life |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 4 | **perish** | infinitive | the boys *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **place** | past | boys *= boy* | life |  | one cunning spot | after another |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme in spot=Destination |
| 6 | **snatch** | past | Wendy | life |  | the hands of Peter's children |  | always *property* | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent it=Theme from hand=Source |
| 7 | **lose** | past | life | life's succulence |  |  | time |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent succulence=Eventuality |
| 8 | **become** | past | boys *= boy* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | hard *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 9 | **use** | past · passive | boys *= boy* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | as a missile | vn eat-39.1 «NP V» |
| 10 | **hook** | infinitive | we *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 11 | **fall** | past | we *not said here* |  |  | life |  | in the dark | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme over it=Location |

<!-- .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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