---
title: Proverbs 20:9 (JPS 1917) — Who can say: 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin'? · tree and pragmatics
description: Who can say: 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin'? Who acts: I. Proverbs 20:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 20:9 · JPS 1917

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Who can say: 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin'?

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** say, make, be · **To what, where:** heart, sin · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Proverbs 20:9 · 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 (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:PRO:567
# text = Who can say: 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin'?
1	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	clean	clean	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
13	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	pure	pure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	parataxis	_	_
16	from	from	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	sin	sin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed form=q, act=ask, indirect=1, polarity=neg

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | can |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **make** | present · perfect | I | my heart |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heart=Product |
| 3 | **is** | present | I |  |  | my sin |  | pure *property* | tree rules |

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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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מִֽי־יֹ֭אמַר זִכִּ֣יתִי לִבִּ֑י טָ֝הַ֗רְתִּי מֵחַטָּאתִֽי׃

[Proverbs 20:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.20.9/)

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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:567` 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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