---
title: Song of Songs 8:9 (JPS 1917) — If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret of silver; and if… · tree and pragmatics
description: If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret of silver; and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. Who acts: hand, we. Song of Songs 8:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Song of Songs 8:9 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret of silver; and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hand, we · **What happens:** be, build, enclose · **To what, where:** wall, turret, door, hand

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Song of Songs 8:9 · 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 (hand, we), 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:128
# text = If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret of silver; and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	be	be	AUX	VB	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	advcl	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
10	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	turret	turret	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	silver	silver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
18	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	advcl	_	_
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
25	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
26	enclose	enclose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
27	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	with	with	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	boards	board	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	obl	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	cedar	cedar	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod	_	_
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: suggest
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive | hand | a wall |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **build** | future | we | a turret of silver |  |  |  | upon hand | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent turret=Product |
| 3 | **is a** *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive | hand | a door |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **enclose** | future | we | hand |  |  |  | with boards of cedar | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme she=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
אִם־חוֹמָ֣ה הִ֔יא נִבְנֶ֥ה עָלֶ֖יהָ טִ֣ירַת כָּ֑סֶף וְאִם־דֶּ֣לֶת הִ֔יא נָצ֥וּר עָלֶ֖יהָ ל֥וּחַ אָֽרֶז׃

[Song of Songs 8:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/SNG.8.9/)

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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:128` 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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