---
title: Lamentations 4:4 (JPS 1917) — The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth fo… · tree and pragmatics
description: The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask bread, and none breaketh it unto them. Who acts: tongue, young children, none. Lamentations 4:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Lamentations 4:4 · JPS 1917

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The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask bread, and none breaketh it unto them.

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**Who acts:** tongue, young children, none · **What happens:** cleave, ask, break · **To what, where:** bread

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This is Lamentations 4:4 · 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 (tongue, young children, none), 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:LAM:125
# text = The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask bread, and none breaketh it unto them.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	sucking	suck	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
7	cleaveth	cleave	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	roof	roof	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	thirst	thirst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
20	ask	ask	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
21	bread	bread	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
24	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	25	nsubj	_	_
25	breaketh	break	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	conj	_	_
26	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obj	_	_
27	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	obl	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cleave** | present | the tongue of the sucking child |  |  |  |  | to the roof of tongue's mouth *result*; for thirst | vn break-45.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Patient to roof=Result |
| 2 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present | the young children | bread |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent bread=Recipient |
| 3 | **break** | present | none | bread |  |  |  | unto jackals *= jackal* | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient |

<!-- .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.

## The Hebrew of this verse {#hebrew}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
דָּבַ֨ק לְשׁ֥וֹן יוֹנֵ֛ק אֶל־חכּ֖וֹבַּצָּמָ֑א עֽוֹלָלִים֙ שָׁ֣אֲלוּ לֶ֔חֶם פֹּרֵ֖שׂ אֵ֥ין לָהֶֽם׃ס

[Lamentations 4:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.4.4/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:LAM:125` 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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