---
title: Proverbs 4:20 (JPS 1917) — My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. · tree and pragmatics
description: My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Who acts: you, my. Proverbs 4:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 4:20 · JPS 1917

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My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

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**Who acts:** you, my · **What happens:** attend, incline, word, say · **To what, where:** ear · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Proverbs 4:20 · 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 (you, my), 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:PRO:110
# text = My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	vocative	_	_
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	attend	attend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
9	incline	incline	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
10	thine	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	sayings	saying	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **attend** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to my words; My son *vocative* | vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent to word=Theme |
| 2 | **incline** | infinitive |  | thine ear |  |  |  | unto my sayings | vn addict-96 «NP V NP PP.Theme»: agent=Agent ear=Patient |
| 3 | **word** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **say** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom saying «communication transitive»: poss=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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בְּ֭נִי לִדְבָרַ֣י הַקְשִׁ֑יבָה לַ֝אֲמָרַ֗י הַט־אָזְנֶֽךָ׃

[Proverbs 4:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.4.20/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PRO:110` 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: [Proverbs 4:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.109/)
- next →: [Proverbs 4:21 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.111/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 4:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.4.20/)