---
title: Psalms 105:12 (JPS 1917) — When they were but a few men in number. · tree and pragmatics
description: When they were but a few men in number. Who acts: judgments. Psalms 105:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 105:12 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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When they were but a few men in number.

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**Who acts:** judgments · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** few men, number

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This is Psalms 105:12 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (judgments), 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:1872
# text = When they were but a few men in number.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	but	but	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	number	number	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: fragment
- act: other
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=frag, act=other

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | judgments *= judgment* | a few men |  | number |  | but *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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בִּֽ֭הְיוֹתָם מְתֵ֣י מִסְפָּ֑ר כִּ֝מְעַ֗ט וְגָרִ֥ים בָּֽהּ׃

[Psalms 105:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.105.12/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **When they were but a few men in number.**
2. [Yea, very few, and sojourners in it,](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.1873/)

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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:1872` 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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