---
title: Psalms 78:34 (JPS 1917) — When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back… · tree and pragmatics
description: When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back and seek God earnestly. Who acts: Man, streams. Psalms 78:34 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 78:34 · JPS 1917

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When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back and seek God earnestly.

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**Who acts:** Man, streams · **What happens:** slay, inquire, turn back, seek · **To what, where:** streams, God

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This is Psalms 78:34 · 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 (Man, streams), 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:1361
# text = When He slew them, then they would inquire after Him, and turn back and seek God earnestly.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	3	mark	_	_
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	slew	slay	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	inquire	inquire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	after	after	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
15	back	back	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
18	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
19	earnestly	earnestly	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- 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 | **slay** | past | Man | streams *= stream* |  |  |  |  | vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 2 | **inquire** *speech: other* | would | streams *= stream* |  |  |  | after Man; then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **turn back** | infinitive | streams *= stream* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **seek** | infinitive | streams *= stream* *not said here* | God |  |  |  | earnestly *property* | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent god=Theme |

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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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אִם־הֲרָגָ֥ם וּדְרָשׁ֑וּהוּ וְ֝שָׁ֗בוּ וְשִֽׁחֲרוּ־אֵֽל׃

[Psalms 78:34: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.78.34/)

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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:1361` 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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