---
title: Psalms 115:2 (JPS 1917) — Wherefore should the nations say: 'Where is now their God?' · tree and pragmatics
description: Wherefore should the nations say: 'Where is now their God?' Who acts: nations. Psalms 115:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 115:2 · JPS 1917

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Wherefore should the nations say: 'Where is now their God?'

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**Who acts:** nations · **What happens:** say, be · **To what, where:** God · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Psalms 115:2 · 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 (nations), 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:2092
# text = Wherefore should the nations say: 'Where is now their God?'
1	Wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	nations	nation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	_
8	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	12	advmod	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	ccomp	_	_
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
14	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- 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 | **say** *speech: assert* | should | the nations |  |  |  |  | wherefore *property* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | nations's God |  |  | now |  | 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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לָ֭מָּה יֹאמְר֣וּ הַגּוֹיִ֑ם אַיֵּה־נָ֝֗א אֱלֹהֵיהֶֽם׃

[Psalms 115:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.115.2/)

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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:2092` 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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