---
title: 1 Samuel 17:29 (JPS 1917) — Was it not but a word?' · tree and pragmatics
description: Was it not but a word?' Who acts: anger. 1 Samuel 17:29 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 17:29 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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Was it not but a word?'

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**Who acts:** anger · **What happens:** not be · **To what, where:** word

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This is 1 Samuel 17:29 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 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 (anger), 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:482
# text = Was it not but a word?'
1	Was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
4	but	but	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
8	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=q, voice=character

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **is a** | past | anger | a word |  |  |  | but *property* | tree rules |

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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 דָּוִ֔ד מֶ֥ה עָשִׂ֖יתִי עָ֑תָּה הֲל֖וֹא דָּבָ֥ר הֽוּא׃

[1 Samuel 17:29: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.17.29/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [And David said: 'What have I now done?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.481/)
2. **Was it not but a word?'**

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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:482` 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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