---
title: 1 Samuel 9:2 (JPS 1917) — And he had a son, whose name was Saul, young and goodly, and there w… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he had a son, whose name was Saul, young and goodly, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. Who acts: man, name, goodlier person, Saul. 1 Samuel 9:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the
---

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# 1 Samuel 9:2 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he had a son, whose name was Saul, young and goodly, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

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**Who acts:** man, name, goodlier person, Saul · **What happens:** have, be, not be, name · **To what, where:** son, Saul, shoulders

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This is 1 Samuel 9:2 · 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 (man, name, goodlier person, Saul), 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:1SA:198
# text = And he had a son, whose name was Saul, young and goodly, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	Saul	Saul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	acl:relcl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
12	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	goodly	goodly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
20	among	among	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	goodlier	goodly	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	27	amod	_	_
27	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
28	than	than	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obl	_	_
30	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	38	punct	_	_
31	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	38	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	upward	upward	ADV	RB	_	33	conj	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	38	nsubj	_	_
37	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	cop	_	_
38	higher	high	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	18	conj	_	_
39	than	than	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	38	obl	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	_
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- 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 | **have** | past | man | a son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 2 | **is a** | past | Saul's name | Saul |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **be** | past | a goodlier person |  |  | there |  | among the children of Israel | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme among child=Location |
| 4 | **is** | past | man |  |  | man's shoulders |  | than any; high *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **name** |  | Saul |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וְלוֹ־הָיָ֨ה בֵ֜ן וּשְׁמ֤וֹ שָׁאוּל֙ בָּח֣וּר וָט֔וֹב וְאֵ֥ין אִ֛ישׁ מִבְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל ט֣וֹב מִמֶּ֑נּוּ מִשִּׁכְמ֣וֹ וָמַ֔עְלָה גָּבֹ֖הַּ מִכָּל־הָעָֽם׃

[1 Samuel 9:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.9.2/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:1SA:198` 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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