---
title: Psalms 55:22 (JPS 1917) — Smoother than cream were the speeches of his mouth, but his heart wa… · tree and pragmatics
description: Smoother than cream were the speeches of his mouth, but his heart was war; his words were softer than oil, yet were they keen-edged swords. Who acts: speeches, heart, words, God. Psalms 55:22 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Psalms 55:22 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Smoother than cream were the speeches of his mouth, but his heart was war; his words were softer than oil, yet were they keen-edged swords.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** speeches, heart, words, God · **What happens:** be, edge, speak, word · **To what, where:** war, edged swords, mouth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Psalms 55:22 · 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 (speeches, heart, words, God), 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:913
# text = Smoother than cream were the speeches of his mouth, but his heart was war; his words were softer than oil, yet were they keen-edged swords.
1	Smoother	smooth	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
2	than	than	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	cream	cream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	speeches	speech	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	war	war	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	softer	soft	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	1	parataxis	_	_
21	than	than	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
24	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
25	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	cop	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
27	keen	keen	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	_
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	_
29	edged	edge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	amod	_	_
30	swords	sword	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	conj	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: evaluate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=evaluate

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the speeches of God's mouth |  |  |  |  | than cream; smooth *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past | God's heart | war |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | God's words |  |  |  |  | than oil; soft *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **edge** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is a** | past | words *= word* | edged swords |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **speak** |  |  | God's mouth |  |  |  |  | nom speech «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 7 | **word** |  | God |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication 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 -->
חָלְק֤וּ ׀ מַחְמָאֹ֣ת פִּיו֮ וּֽקֲרָב־לִ֫בּ֥וֹ רַכּ֖וּ דְבָרָ֥יו מִשֶּׁ֗מֶן וְהֵ֣מָּה פְתִחֽוֹת׃

[Psalms 55:22: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PSA.55.22/)

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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:913` 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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