---
title: 1 Kings 1:3 (JPS 1917) — So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the borders of Israe… · tree and pragmatics
description: So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. Who acts: servants. 1 Kings 1:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Kings 1:3 · JPS 1917

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So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

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**Who acts:** servants · **What happens:** seek, find, bring · **To what, where:** borders, Abishag, king

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This is 1 Kings 1:3 · 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 (servants), 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:1KI:2
# text = So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	sought	seek	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	fair	fair	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	damsel	damsel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	throughout	throughout	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	11	det:predet	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	borders	border	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	Abishag	Abishag	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	Shunammite	Shunammite	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	appos	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
23	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **seek** | past | servants *= servant* |  |  | all borders of Israel |  | for a fair damsel | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for damsel=Theme throughout border=Location |
| 2 | **find** | past | servants *= servant* *not said here* | Abishag |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent abishag=Topic |
| 3 | **bring** | past | servants *= servant* *not said here* | Abishag | the king |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent she=Theme to king=Destination |

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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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וַיְבַקְשׁוּ֙ נַעֲרָ֣ה יָפָ֔ה בְּכֹ֖ל גְּב֣וּל יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַֽיִּמְצְא֗וּ אֶת־אֲבִישַׁג֙ הַשּׁ֣וּנַמִּ֔ית וַיָּבִ֥אוּ אֹתָ֖הּ לַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃

[1 Kings 1:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1KI.1.3/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:1KI:2` 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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