---
title: Psalms 78:2 (JPS 1917) — I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings conce… · tree and pragmatics
description: I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old; Who acts: I. Psalms 78:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 78:2 · JPS 1917

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I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old;

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** open, utter · **To what, where:** mouth, dark sayings

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This is Psalms 78:2 · 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 (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:PSA:1329
# text = I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter dark sayings concerning days of old;
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	open	open	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	parable	parable	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	utter	utter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
13	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	sayings	saying	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obj	_	_
15	concerning	concern	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	nmod	_	_
19	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: promise
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **open** | future | I | my mouth |  |  |  | with a parable | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent mouth=Patient with parable=Instrument |
| 2 | **utter** *speech: other* | future | I | dark sayings |  |  | day |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent saying=Topic |

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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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
אֶפְתְּחָ֣ה בְמָשָׁ֣ל פִּ֑י אַבִּ֥יעָה חִ֝יד֗וֹת מִנִּי־קֶֽדֶם׃

[Psalms 78:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.78.2/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PSA:1329` 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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