---
title: Song of Songs 5:6 (JPS 1917) — I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me… · tree and pragmatics
description: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. Who acts: I, soul. Song of Songs 5:6 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Song of Songs 5:6 · JPS 1917, sentence 3 of 3

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I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

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**Who acts:** I, soul · **What happens:** seek, not find, call, give · **To what, where:** soul, answer, me · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Song of Songs 5:6 · JPS 1917, sentence 3 of 3 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, soul), 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:73
# text = I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
5	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
6	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	21	det	_	_
21	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | past | I | soul |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **find** | could | I | soul |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic |
| 3 | **call** | past | I |  | soul |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **give** | past | soul | no answer | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient answer=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}

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פָּתַ֤חְתִּֽי אֲנִי֙ לְדוֹדִ֔י וְדוֹדִ֖י חָמַ֣ק עָבָ֑ר נַפְשִׁי֙ יָֽצְאָ֣ה בְדַבְּר֔וֹ בִּקַּשְׁתִּ֙יהוּ֙ וְלֹ֣א מְצָאתִ֔יהוּ קְרָאתִ֖יו וְלֹ֥א עָנָֽנִי׃

[Song of Songs 5:6: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/SNG.5.6/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had turned away, and was gone.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/SNG.71/)
2. [My soul failed me when he spoke.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/SNG.72/)
3. **I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.**

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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:73` 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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