---
title: He knew that they would soon be drowned, but he could do no more. — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: He knew that they would soon be drowned, but he could do no more. Who acts: water. 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 259

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He knew that they would soon be drowned, but he could do no more.

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**Who acts:** water · **What happens:** know, drown, do · **To what, where:** figures, more · **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 (water), 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:pg16:9:259
# text = He knew that they would soon be drowned, but he could do no more.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	drowned	drown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
14	no	no	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | past | water |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **drown** | would · passive |  | figures *= figure* |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **do** | could | water | more |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent more=Eventuality |

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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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