---
title: Nehemiah 2:4 (JPS 1917) — Then the king said unto me: 'For what dost thou make request?' So I… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the king said unto me: 'For what dost thou make request?' So I prayed to the God of heaven. Who acts: king, thou, I. Nehemiah 2:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Nehemiah 2:4 · JPS 1917

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Then the king said unto me: 'For what dost thou make request?' So I prayed to the God of heaven.

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**Who acts:** king, thou, I · **What happens:** say, make, pray · **To what, where:** request · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Nehemiah 2:4 · 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 (king, 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:16
# text = Then the king said unto me: 'For what dost thou make request?' So I prayed to the God of heaven.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
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	0	root	_	_
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	For	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	obl	_	_
11	dost	do	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nsubj	_	_
13	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
14	request	request	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
17	So	so	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	prayed	pray	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	heaven	heaven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the king |  |  |  | then | unto me | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **make** | do-support | thou | request |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: agent=Agent request=Product for what=Asset |
| 3 | **pray** | past | I |  |  |  |  | to the God of heaven | vn long-32.2 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |

<!-- .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}

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וַיֹּ֤אמֶר לִי֙ הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ עַל־מַה־זֶּ֖ה אַתָּ֣ה מְבַקֵּ֑שׁ וָֽאֶתְפַּלֵּ֔ל אֶל־אֱלֹהֵ֖י הַשָּׁמָֽיִם׃

[Nehemiah 2:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/NEH.2.4/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NEH:16` 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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