---
title: Song of Songs 8:7 (JPS 1917) — Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if… · tree and pragmatics
description: Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, he would utterly be contemned. Who acts: Many waters, floods, man. Song of Songs 8:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Song of Songs 8:7 · JPS 1917

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Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, he would utterly be contemned.

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**Who acts:** Many waters, floods, man · **What happens:** not quench, drown, give, contemn · **To what, where:** love, substance, man

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This is Song of Songs 8:7 · 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 (Many waters, floods, man), 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:126
# text = Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, he would utterly be contemned.
1	Many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	quench	quench	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	12	cc	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	floods	flood	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	drown	drown	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	33	punct	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	advcl	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	substance	substance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	for	for	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
30	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
31	utterly	utterly	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
32	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	contemned	contemn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **quench** | can | Many waters | love |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus love=Experiencer |
| 2 | **drown** | can | the floods | love |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | a man | all substance of man's house |  |  |  | for love | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent substance=Theme for love=Asset |
| 4 | **contemn** | would · passive |  | man |  |  |  | utterly *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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}

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מַ֣יִם רַבִּ֗ים לֹ֤א יֽוּכְלוּ֙ לְכַבּ֣וֹת אֶת־הָֽאַהֲבָ֔ה וּנְהָר֖וֹת לֹ֣א יִשְׁטְפ֑וּהָ אִם־יִתֵּ֨ן אִ֜ישׁ אֶת־כָּל־ה֤וֹן בֵּיתוֹ֙ בָּאַהֲבָ֔ה בּ֖וֹז יָב֥וּזוּ לֽוֹ׃ס

[Song of Songs 8:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/SNG.8.7/)

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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:126` 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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