---
title: 1 Samuel 15:17 (JPS 1917) — And Samuel said: 'Though thou be little in thine own sight, art thou… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Samuel said: 'Though thou be little in thine own sight, art thou not head of the tribes of Israel? Who acts: Samuel, thou, thine. 1 Samuel 15:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 15:17 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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And Samuel said: 'Though thou be little in thine own sight, art thou not head of the tribes of Israel?

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**Who acts:** Samuel, thou, thine · **What happens:** say, be, not be, sight · **To what, where:** own sight, head · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is 1 Samuel 15:17 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (Samuel, thou, thine), 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:398
# text = And Samuel said: 'Though thou be little in thine own sight, art thou not head of the tribes of Israel?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Samuel	Samuel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	_
6	Though	though	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	9	nsubj	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	advcl	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	thine	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	nsubj	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	tribes	tribe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: evaluate
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed act=evaluate

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Samuel |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | thou |  |  | thine own sight |  | little *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is a** | present | thou | head |  |  |  | of the tribes of Israel | tree rules |
| 4 | **sight** |  | thine |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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וַיֹּ֣אמֶר שְׁמוּאֵ֔ל הֲל֗וֹא אִם־קָטֹ֤ן אַתָּה֙ בְּעֵינֶ֔יךָ רֹ֛אשׁ שִׁבְטֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל אָ֑תָּה וַיִּמְשָׁחֲךָ֧ יְהוָ֛ה לְמֶ֖לֶךְ עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

[1 Samuel 15:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.15.17/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **And Samuel said: 'Though thou be little in thine own sight, art thou not head of the tribes of Israel?**
2. [And the LORD anointed thee king over Israel;](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.399/)

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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:398` 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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