---
title: As they sat thus something brushed against Peter as light as a kiss,… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: As they sat thus something brushed against Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, “Can I be of any use?” Who acts: voices. 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 281

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As they sat thus something brushed against Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, “Can I be of any use?”

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**Who acts:** voices · **What happens:** sit, brush, stay, say, be · **To what, where:** something · **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 (voices), 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:pg16:9:281
# text = As they sat thus something brushed against Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, “Can I be of any use?”
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	3	obj	_	_
6	brushed	brush	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	against	against	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	Peter	Peter	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	kiss	kiss	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	stayed	stay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	16	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
22	timidly	timidly	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	Can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
26	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
30	use	use	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	30	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | past | voices *= voice* | something |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location something=Theme |
| 2 | **brush** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | against Peter; as light; as a kiss | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme against peter=Destination |
| 3 | **stay** | past | voices *= voice* *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **say** *speech: ask* | gerund | voices *= voice* *not said here* |  |  |  |  | timidly *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** *in a quote* | can | voices *= voice* |  |  |  |  | of any use | tree rules |

<!-- .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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