---
title: Psalms 144:4 (JPS 1917) — Man is like unto a breath; his days are as a shadow that passeth away. · tree and pragmatics
description: Man is like unto a breath; his days are as a shadow that passeth away. Who acts: Man, days, shadow. Psalms 144:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 144:4 · JPS 1917

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Man is like unto a breath; his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

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**Who acts:** Man, days, shadow · **What happens:** be, pass away

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This is Psalms 144:4 · 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 (Man, days, shadow), 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:2602
# text = Man is like unto a breath; his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
1	Man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
3	like	like	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	3	fixed	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
10	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	as	as	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	shadow	shadow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
14	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
15	passeth	pass	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	acl:relcl	_	_
16	away	away	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Man |  |  |  |  | like a breath | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | LORD's days |  |  |  |  | as a shadow | tree rules |
| 3 | **pass away** | present | a shadow |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn die-42.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |

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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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אָ֭דָם לַהֶ֣בֶל דָּמָ֑ה יָ֝מָ֗יו כְּצֵ֣ל עוֹבֵֽר׃

[Psalms 144:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.144.4/)

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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:2602` 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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