---
title: Smee, much impressed, gazed at the bird as the nest was borne past,… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Smee, much impressed, gazed at the bird as the nest was borne past, but the more suspicious Starkey said, “If she is a mother, perhaps she is hanging about here to help Peter.” Who acts: suspicious Starkey, Starkey. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON, with 
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON, sentence 114

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Smee, much impressed, gazed at the bird as the nest was borne past, but the more suspicious Starkey said, “If she is a mother, perhaps she is hanging about here to help Peter.”

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**Who acts:** suspicious Starkey, Starkey · **What happens:** gaze, bear, say, be, hang, help · **To what, where:** nest, mother, Peter · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (suspicious Starkey, Starkey), 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:pg16:9:114
# text = Smee, much impressed, gazed at the bird as the nest was borne past, but the more suspicious Starkey said, “If she is a mother, perhaps she is hanging about here to help Peter.”
1	Smee	Smee	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	much	much	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	impressed	impressed	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	gazed	gaze	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	nest	nest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	borne	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	6	advcl	_	_
15	past	past	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
17	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	20	advmod	_	_
20	suspicious	suspicious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	Starkey	Starkey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nsubj	_	_
22	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
24	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
31	perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
32	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	29	parataxis	_	_
35	about	about	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	34	obl	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	advcl	_	_
39	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	38	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **gaze** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | at the bird | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at bird=Theme |
| 2 | **bear** | past · passive |  | the nest |  |  |  | past *property* | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the suspicious Starkey |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | Starkey | a mother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **hang** *in a quote* | present · progressive | Starkey |  |  |  |  | perhaps *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent about here=Location |
| 6 | **help** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Starkey *not said here* |  | Peter |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent peter=Beneficiary |

<!-- .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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