---
title: Psalms 141:3 (JPS 1917) — Set a guard, O LORD, to my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. · tree and pragmatics
description: Set a guard, O LORD, to my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips. Who acts: you. Psalms 141:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 141:3 · JPS 1917

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Set a guard, O LORD, to my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.

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**Who acts:** you · **What happens:** set, keep · **To what, where:** guard, watch, door

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This is Psalms 141:3 · 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 (you), 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:2569
# text = Set a guard, O LORD, to my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.
1	Set	set	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	guard	guard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	_
6	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	vocative	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
12	keep	keep	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
13	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=request

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **set** | imperative | you *not said here* | a guard |  |  |  | to my mouth; LORD *vocative* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient guard=Result |
| 2 | **keep** | infinitive | you *not said here* | watch |  | the door of my lips |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent watch=Theme at door=Location |

<!-- .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 -->
שִׁיתָ֣ה יְ֭הוָה שָׁמְרָ֣ה לְפִ֑י נִ֝צְּרָ֗ה עַל־דַּ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽי׃

[Psalms 141:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.141.3/)

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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:2569` 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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