---
title: Psalms 42:4 (JPS 1917) — My tears have been my food day and night, while they say unto me all… · tree and pragmatics
description: My tears have been my food day and night, while they say unto me all the day: 'Where is Thy God?' Who acts: tears. Psalms 42:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 42:4 · JPS 1917

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My tears have been my food day and night, while they say unto me all the day: 'Where is Thy God?'

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**Who acts:** tears · **What happens:** be, say · **To what, where:** food day, God · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Psalms 42:4 · 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 (tears), 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:692
# text = My tears have been my food day and night, while they say unto me all the day: 'Where is Thy God?'
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	tears	tear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
3	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
4	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
5	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
14	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	_
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
20	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	_
21	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	24	advmod	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	_
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	_
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: express
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=decl, act=express

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present · perfect | My tears | my food day and night |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | tears *= tear* |  |  |  | day | unto me | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | Thy God |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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הָֽיְתָה־לִּ֬י דִמְעָתִ֣י לֶ֭חֶם יוֹמָ֣ם וָלָ֑יְלָה בֶּאֱמֹ֥ר אֵלַ֥י כָּל־הַ֝יּ֗וֹם אַיֵּ֥ה אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃

[Psalms 42:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.42.4/)

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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:692` 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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