---
title: Esther 2:2 (JPS 1917) — Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him: 'Let there b… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him: 'Let there be sought for the king young virgins fair to look on; Who acts: servants. Esther 2:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Esther 2:2 · JPS 1917

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Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him: 'Let there be sought for the king young virgins fair to look on;

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**Who acts:** servants · **What happens:** say, minister, let, seek, look on · **To what, where:** young virgins · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Esther 2:2 · JPS 1917 in the English of the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 translation, from Mova's open Bible corpus. The page gives the sentence's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, parsed by Mova and checked by a teacher model — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servants), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it. The original of the verse links back to its own tree and to the Targum.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = jps:EST:24
# text = Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him: 'Let there be sought for the king young virgins fair to look on;
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
7	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	8	nsubj	_	_
8	ministered	minister	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obl	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
13	Let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
14	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	16	expl	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	sought	seek	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	xcomp	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	virgins	virgin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
22	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
25	on	on	ADP	RP	_	24	compound:prt	_	_
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king's servants |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **minister** | past | the king's servants |  |  |  |  | unto king | tree rules |
| 3 | **let** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **seek** | infinitive · passive |  | young virgins |  | there |  | for the king | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: virgin=Location for king=Theme |
| 5 | **look on** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

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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.

## The Hebrew of this verse {#hebrew}

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וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ נַעֲרֵֽי־הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ מְשָׁרְתָ֑יו יְבַקְשׁ֥וּ לַמֶּ֛לֶךְ נְעָר֥וֹת בְּתוּל֖וֹת טוֹב֥וֹת מַרְאֶֽה׃

[Esther 2:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/EST.2.2/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EST:24` of Mova's parse database.

**The tree and the speech act** come from Mova's cycle: the small model's draft, read by a large model as teacher, passed by Mova's gates (Elamur Cosmic License). **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the chapter read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence of the chapter.

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