---
title: Psalms 137:1 (JPS 1917) — By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we r… · tree and pragmatics
description: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Who acts: we. Psalms 137:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 137:1 · JPS 1917

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By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** sit down, weep, remember · **To what, where:** Zion

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This is Psalms 137:1 · 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 (we), 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:2505
# text = By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Babylon	Babylon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
8	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	down	down	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	yea	yea	INTJ	UH	_	15	discourse	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
14	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	19	mark	_	_
18	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	remembered	remember	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	advcl	_	_
20	Zion	Zion	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed polarity=none

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past | we |  |  | there |  | by the rivers of Babylon | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by river=Location |
| 2 | **weep** | past | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **remember** | past | we | Zion |  |  |  |  | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent zion=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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
עַ֥ל נַהֲר֨וֹת ׀ בָּבֶ֗ל שָׁ֣ם יָ֭שַׁבְנוּ גַּם־בָּכִ֑ינוּ בְּ֝זָכְרֵ֗נוּ אֶת־צִיּֽוֹן׃

[Psalms 137:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.137.1/)

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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:2505` 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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