---
title: Psalms 120:1 (JPS 1917) — In my distress I called unto the LORD, and He answered me. · tree and pragmatics
description: In my distress I called unto the LORD, and He answered me. Who acts: I, He, my. Psalms 120:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 120:1 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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In my distress I called unto the LORD, and He answered me.

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**Who acts:** I, He, my · **What happens:** call, answer, distress · **To what, where:** distress, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Psalms 120:1 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 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 (I, He, my), 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:2343
# text = In my distress I called unto the LORD, and He answered me.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	distress	distress	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
13	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** | past | I |  |  | my distress |  | unto the LORD | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | He |  | me |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent i=Eventuality |
| 3 | **distress** |  | my |  |  |  |  |  | nom distress «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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 -->
שִׁ֗יר הַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹתאֶל־יְ֭הוָה בַּצָּרָ֣תָה לִּ֑י קָ֝רָ֗אתִי וַֽיַּעֲנֵֽנִי׃

[Psalms 120:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.120.1/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. [A Song of Ascents.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.2342/)
2. **In my distress I called unto the LORD, and He answered me.**

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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:2343` 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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