---
title: As they lay side by side a mermaid caught Wendy by the feet, and beg… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: As they lay side by side a mermaid caught Wendy by the feet, and began pulling her softly into the water. Who acts: figures, mermaid. 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 260

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As they lay side by side a mermaid caught Wendy by the feet, and began pulling her softly into the water.

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**Who acts:** figures, mermaid · **What happens:** lay, catch, begin, pull · **To what, where:** side, Wendy, water

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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 (figures, mermaid), 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:pg16:9:260
# text = As they lay side by side a mermaid caught Wendy by the feet, and began pulling her softly into the water.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	lay	lay	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	advcl	_	_
4	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
9	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	acl	_	_
10	Wendy	Wendy	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	pulling	pull	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	xcomp	_	_
18	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	softly	softly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
20	into	into	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lay** | present | figures *= figure* | side |  |  |  | by side | vn put\_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Agent side=Theme mermaid=Destination |
| 2 | **catch** | participle | a mermaid *not said here* | Wendy |  |  |  | by the feet | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wendy=Theme |
| 3 | **begin** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pull** | gerund |  | Wendy |  | the water |  | softly *property* | vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: agent=Agent her=Result |

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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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