---
title: Job 4:2 (JPS 1917) — But who can withhold himself from speaking? · tree and pragmatics
description: But who can withhold himself from speaking? Job 4:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Job 4:2 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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But who can withhold himself from speaking?

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**What happens:** withhold, speak · **To what, where:** Eliphaz · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Job 4:2 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 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: 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:67
# text = But who can withhold himself from speaking?
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	withhold	withhold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	4	obj	_	_
6	from	from	ADP	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
7	speaking	speak	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: evaluate
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed act=evaluate, indirect=1, voice=character

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **withhold** | can |  | Eliphaz |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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הֲנִסָּ֬ה דָבָ֣ר אֵלֶ֣יךָ תִּלְאֶ֑ה וַעְצֹ֥ר בְּ֝מִלִּ֗ין מִ֣י יוּכָֽל׃

[Job 4:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.4.2/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [If one venture a word unto thee, wilt thou be weary?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.66/)
2. **But who can withhold himself from speaking?**

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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:67` 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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