---
title: An easy way would have been to wait until the pirates had gone, but… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: An easy way would have been to wait until the pirates had gone, but he was never one to choose the easy way. Who acts: pirates, Peter. 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 66

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An easy way would have been to wait until the pirates had gone, but he was never one to choose the easy way.

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**Who acts:** pirates, Peter · **What happens:** wait, be, not be, choose · **To what, where:** one, easy way

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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 (pirates, Peter), 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:pg16:9:66
# text = An easy way would have been to wait until the pirates had gone, but he was never one to choose the easy way.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
5	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	aux	_	_
6	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	cop	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	wait	wait	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
9	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	pirates	pirate	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
12	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	gone	go	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|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	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	obl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	choose	choose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	acl	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	easy	easy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wait** | to-infinitive | the pirates *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | would · perfect | the pirates |  |  |  |  | a easy way *obl:unmarked*; go *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is a** | past | Peter | one |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **choose** | to-infinitive |  | the easy way |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=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.

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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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