---
title: “Captain,” said Smee, “could we not kidnap these boys’ mother and ma… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “Captain,” said Smee, “could we not kidnap these boys’ mother and make her our mother?” Who acts: Captain, we. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON, sentence 118

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“Captain,” said Smee, “could we not kidnap these boys’ mother and make her our mother?”

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**Who acts:** Captain, we · **What happens:** say, not kidnap, make · **To what, where:** mother · **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 (Captain, we), 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:pg16:9:118
# text = “Captain,” said Smee, “could we not kidnap these boys’ mother and make her our mother?”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Captain	captain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Smee	Smee	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	kidnap	kidnap	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Captain |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **kidnap** *in a quote* | could | we | this boys's mother |  |  |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Theme |
| 3 | **make** *in a quote* | infinitive | we *not said here* |  | mother |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset she=Beneficiary mother=Product |

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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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