---
title: Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own. Who acts: evidence, codfish. 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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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/9/163/)

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# Peter Pan, Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON, sentence 163

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Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own.

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**Who acts:** evidence, codfish · **What happens:** not be, need, be · **To what, where:** belief

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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 (evidence, codfish), 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:pg16:9:163
# text = Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own.
1	Against	against	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	such	such	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
3	fearful	fearful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	evidence	evidence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
5	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
8	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	belief	belief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	parataxis	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	needed	need	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | evidence | men's belief |  |  |  | in codfish | tree rules |
| 2 | **need** | past | codfish | men's belief *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot belief=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | evidence |  |  |  |  | against such fearful evidence; own *property* | tree rules |

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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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