---
title: 1 Samuel 17:43 (JPS 1917) — And the Philistine said unto David: 'Am I a dog, that thou comest to… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the Philistine said unto David: 'Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?' And the Philistine cursed David by his god. Who acts: Philistine, I, thou. 1 Samuel 17:43 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 17:43 · JPS 1917

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And the Philistine said unto David: 'Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?' And the Philistine cursed David by his god.

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**Who acts:** Philistine, I, thou · **What happens:** say, be, come, curse · **To what, where:** dog, me, David · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is 1 Samuel 17:43 · 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 (Philistine, I, thou), 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:497
# text = And the Philistine said unto David: 'Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?' And the Philistine cursed David by his god.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	Philistine	Philistine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
8	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	_
9	Am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nsubj	_	_
16	comest	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obl	_	_
19	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	staves	stave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
23	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	Philistine	philistine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	cursed	curse	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
27	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	by	by	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	god	god	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed indirect=0

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Philistine |  |  |  |  | unto David | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | I | a dog |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **come** | present | thou |  | me |  |  | with staves | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to i=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **curse** | past | the Philistine | David |  |  |  | by David's god | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent david=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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר הַפְּלִשְׁתִּי֙ אֶל־דָּוִ֔ד הֲכֶ֣לֶב אָנֹ֔כִי כִּֽי־אַתָּ֥ה בָֽא־אֵלַ֖י בַּמַּקְל֑וֹת וַיְקַלֵּ֧ל הַפְּלִשְׁתִּ֛י אֶת־דָּוִ֖ד בֵּאלֹהָֽיו׃

[1 Samuel 17:43: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.17.43/)

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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:497` 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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- ← previous: [1 Samuel 17:42 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.496/)
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