---
title: Nehemiah 2:2 (JPS 1917) — And the king said unto me: 'Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the king said unto me: 'Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.' Then I was very sore afraid. Who acts: king, countenance, thou, I. Nehemiah 2:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Nehemiah 2:2 · JPS 1917

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And the king said unto me: 'Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.' Then I was very sore afraid.

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**Who acts:** king, countenance, thou, I, heart · **What happens:** say, be, see, not be, sorrow · **To what, where:** nothing · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Nehemiah 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 (king, countenance, thou, 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:NEH:14
# text = And the king said unto me: 'Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.' Then I was very sore afraid.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
8	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
9	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	ccomp	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
16	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	nsubj	_	_
17	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	sick	sick	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	_
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
21	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	26	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	0	root	_	_
24	else	else	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	but	but	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	of	of	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nmod	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
30	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
31	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	36	advmod	_	_
32	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
33	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
34	very	very	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	sore	sore	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	36	advmod	_	_
36	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	parataxis	_	_
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed form=wh, act=ask

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king |  |  |  |  | unto me | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | thy countenance |  |  |  |  | sad *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **see** | gerund | thy countenance *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **is** | present | thou |  |  |  |  | sick *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **is a** | present |  | nothing |  |  |  | but sorrow of heart; else *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  | then | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **sorrow** |  | heart |  |  |  |  |  | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּאמֶר֩ לִ֨י הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ מַדּ֣וּעַ ׀ פָּנֶ֣יךָ רָעִ֗ים וְאַתָּה֙ אֵֽינְךָ֣ חוֹלֶ֔ה אֵ֣ין זֶ֔ה כִּי־אִ֖ם רֹ֣עַֽ לֵ֑ב וָאִירָ֖א הַרְבֵּ֥ה מְאֹֽד׃

[Nehemiah 2:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.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:NEH:14` 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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