---
title: “Better do what the captain orders,” said Starkey nervously. — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: “Better do what the captain orders,” said Starkey nervously. Who acts: Better, Starkey. 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 80

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“Better do what the captain orders,” said Starkey nervously.

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**Who acts:** Better, Starkey · **What happens:** do, say · **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 (Better, Starkey), 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:pg16:9:80
# text = “Better do what the captain orders,” said Starkey nervously.
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	nsubj	_	_
3	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	obj	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	captain	captain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	orders	order	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	Starkey	Starkey	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
12	nervously	nervously	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** *in a quote* | present | Better |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Starkey |  |  |  |  | nervously *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

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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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