---
title: Psalms 139:4 (JPS 1917) — For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest… · tree and pragmatics
description: For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Who acts: word, Thou. Psalms 139:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 139:4 · JPS 1917

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For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether.

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**Who acts:** word, Thou · **What happens:** not be, know · **To what, where:** word

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This is Psalms 139:4 · 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 (word, Thou), 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:2528
# text = For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	3	expl	_	_
3	is	be	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	lo	lo	INTJ	UH	_	19	discourse	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
15	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	16	discourse	_	_
16	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	vocative	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	nsubj	_	_
19	knowest	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	_
21	altogether	altogether	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=assert

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **be** | present | a word in my tongue |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | present | Thou | word |  |  |  | LORD *vocative*; altogether *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |

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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 -->
כִּ֤י אֵ֣ין מִ֭לָּה בִּלְשׁוֹנִ֑י הֵ֥ן יְ֝הוָ֗ה יָדַ֥עְתָּ כֻלָּֽהּ׃

[Psalms 139:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.139.4/)

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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:2528` 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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