---
title: Song of Songs 8:1 (JPS 1917) — Oh that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! · tree and pragmatics
description: Oh that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! Who acts: thou, brother. Song of Songs 8:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Song of Songs 8:1 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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Oh that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother!

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**Who acts:** thou, brother · **What happens:** be, suck · **To what, where:** breasts

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This is Song of Songs 8:1 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 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 (thou, brother), 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:SNG:118
# text = Oh that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother!
1	Oh	oh	INTJ	UH	_	7	discourse	_	_
2	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	7	nsubj	_	_
4	wert	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	sucked	suck	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	breasts	breast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | thou |  |  |  |  | as my brother | tree rules |
| 2 | **suck** | past | my brother | the breasts of my mother |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent breast=Source |

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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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מִ֤י יִתֶּנְךָ֙ כְּאָ֣ח לִ֔י יוֹנֵ֖ק שְׁדֵ֣י אִמִּ֑י אֶֽמְצָאֲךָ֤ בַחוּץ֙ אֶשָׁ֣קְךָ֔גַּ֖ם לֹא־יָב֥וּזוּ לִֽי׃

[Song of Songs 8:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/SNG.8.1/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **Oh that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother!**
2. [When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, and none would despise me.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/SNG.119/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:SNG:118` 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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- ← previous: [Song of Songs 7:14 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/SNG.117/)
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