---
title: Job 40:4 (JPS 1917) — Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer Thee? · tree and pragmatics
description: Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer Thee? Who acts: I. Job 40:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Job 40:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer Thee?

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** be, answer · **To what, where:** small account

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This is Job 40:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (I), 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:JOB:1095
# text = Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer Thee?
1	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
4	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	account	account	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
9	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	obj	_	_
10	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
13	Thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	obj	_	_
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=ask, indirect=0

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | I |  |  |  |  | of small account | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | shall | I | small account |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent what=Theme thou=Eventuality |

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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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הֵ֣ן קַ֭לֹּתִי מָ֣ה אֲשִׁיבֶ֑ךָּ יָ֝דִ֗י שַׂ֣מְתִּי לְמוֹ־פִֽי׃

[Job 40:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.40.4/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer Thee?**
2. [I lay my hand upon my mouth.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.1096/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JOB:1095` 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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- ← previous: [Job 40:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.1094/)
- next →: [Job 40:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.1096/)
- ↑ back to [Job 40:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.40.4/)