---
title: Psalms 51:6 (JPS 1917) — Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil… · tree and pragmatics
description: Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in Thy sight; that Thou mayest be justified when Thou speakest, and be in the right when Thou judgest. Who acts: I, Thou, Thy. Psalms 51:6 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 51:6 · JPS 1917

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Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in Thy sight; that Thou mayest be justified when Thou speakest, and be in the right when Thou judgest.

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**Who acts:** I, Thou, Thy · **What happens:** sin, do, be, justify, speak, judge · **To what, where:** that, sight, Thou, right · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Psalms 51:6 · 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 (I, Thou, Thy), 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:847
# text = Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in Thy sight; that Thou mayest be justified when Thou speakest, and be in the right when Thou judgest.
1	Against	against	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	Thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	9	obl	_	_
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	Thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	2	conj	_	_
5	only	only	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
7	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	sinned	sin	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	conj	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	obj	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
16	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	acl:relcl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
20	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
21	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
22	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	25	nsubj:pass	_	_
23	mayest	may	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	aux:pass	_	_
25	justified	justify	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
26	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	28	mark	_	_
27	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	28	nsubj	_	_
28	speakest	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	34	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	cop	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
35	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	37	mark	_	_
36	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	37	nsubj	_	_
37	judgest	judge	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	advcl	_	_
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sin** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | against Thee | vn rebel-71.2-1-1 «NP V PP.maleficiary»: agent=Agent against thou=Maleficiary |
| 2 | **do** | participle | I *not said here* | that |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  | Thy sight |  | evil *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **justify** *speech: other* | may · passive |  | Thou |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic |
| 5 | **speak** *speech: other* | present | Thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | infinitive |  |  |  | the right |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **judge** | present | Thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn estimate-34.2-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent |
| 8 | **sight** |  | Thy |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
לְךָ֤ לְבַדְּךָ֨ ׀ חָטָאתִי֮ וְהָרַ֥ע בְּעֵינֶ֗יךָ עָ֫שִׂ֥יתִי לְ֭מַעַן תִּצְדַּ֥ק בְּדָבְרֶ֗ךָ תִּזְכֶּ֥ה בְשָׁפְטֶֽךָ׃

[Psalms 51:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.51.6/)

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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:847` 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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