---
title: This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one hea… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids singing. Who acts: This, you, two moments, mermaids. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON, with its de
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/9/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Peter Pan](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/) / [Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/9/) / 3

# Peter Pan, Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON, sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids singing.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** This, you, two moments, mermaids · **What happens:** be, get, see, hear, sing · **To what, where:** fire, mainland, surf, mermaids

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (This, you, two moments, mermaids), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Checked tree.** This sentence is in the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3 (`gutenberg:pg16:1119`): parsed by Mova, then checked and patched by a teacher model under UD validation gates — Mova annot: Rust (en) → Claude Opus (medium) patches; gates UD 2.18.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg16:9:3
# text = This is the nearest you ever get to it on the mainland, just one heavenly moment; if there could be two moments you might see the surf and hear the mermaids singing.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	nearest	near	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	0	root	_	_
5	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	7	advmod	_	_
7	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obl	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	mainland	mainland	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	just	just	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	17	nummod	_	_
16	heavenly	heavenly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	moment	moment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
19	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
20	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	22	expl	_	_
21	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	be	be	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	advcl	_	_
23	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	24	nummod	_	_
24	moments	moment	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
25	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	surf	surf	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	conj	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	mermaids	mermaid	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	31	obj	_	_
34	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	31	xcomp	_	_
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | This |  |  |  |  | near *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **get** | infinitive | you |  | fire | the mainland | ever |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to it=Result |
| 3 | **can** *a condition, not said to happen* | could | two moments |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | might | you | the surf |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer surf=Stimulus |
| 5 | **hear** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the mermaids |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund | the mermaids *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Project Gutenberg book 16 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** the tales treebank of Mova corpus 0.3, Apache-2.0 OR MIT. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/9/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/9/4/)
- ↑ back to [Chapter VIII. THE MERMAIDS’ LAGOON](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg16/9/)