---
title: Psalms 40:6 (JPS 1917) — If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be told. · tree and pragmatics
description: If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be told. Who acts: I, thoughts. Psalms 40:6 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 40:6 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be told.

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**Who acts:** I, thoughts · **What happens:** declare, speak, be, tell · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Psalms 40:6 · 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, thoughts), 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:660
# text = If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be told.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	declare	declare	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
13	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
15	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	advcl	_	_
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	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 | **declare** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen* | would | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | of thoughts *= thought* | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | present | thoughts *= thought* |  |  |  |  | more *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | can · passive | thoughts *= thought* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V» |

<!-- .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 -->
רַבּ֤וֹת עָשִׂ֨יתָ ׀ אַתָּ֤ה ׀ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהַי֮ נִֽפְלְאֹתֶ֥יךָ וּמַחְשְׁבֹתֶ֗יךָ אֵ֫לֵ֥ינוּ אֵ֤ין ׀ עֲרֹ֬ךְ אֵלֶ֗יךָ אַגִּ֥ידָה וַאֲדַבֵּ֑רָה עָ֝צְמ֗וּ מִסַּפֵּֽר׃

[Psalms 40:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.40.6/)

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

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1. [Many things hast Thou done, O LORD my God, even Thy wonderful works, and Thy thoughts toward us; there is none to be compared unto Thee!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.659/)
2. **If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be told.**

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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:660` 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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