---
title: 1 Samuel 18:18 (JPS 1917) — And David said unto Saul: 'Who am I, and what is my life, or my fath… · tree and pragmatics
description: And David said unto Saul: 'Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?' Who acts: David, I. 1 Samuel 18:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.532/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Nevi'im](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/) / [1 Samuel](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA/) / [chapter 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA/18/) / [18:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.18.18/) / JPS 1

# 1 Samuel 18:18 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And David said unto Saul: 'Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** David, I · **What happens:** say, be · **To what, where:** life, son, law · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 1 Samuel 18:18 · 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 (David, I), 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:532
# text = And David said unto Saul: 'Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Saul	Saul	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj	_	_
9	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	16	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	's	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
27	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
28	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	cop	_	_
30	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	acl:relcl	_	_
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	34	punct	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	32	punct	_	_
34	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nmod	_	_
38	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
39	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | David |  |  |  |  | unto Saul | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | my life or my father's family in Israel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | should | I | son |  | law |  | to the king | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר דָּוִ֜ד אֶל־שָׁא֗וּל מִ֤י אָֽנֹכִי֙ וּמִ֣י חַיַּ֔י מִשְׁפַּ֥חַת אָבִ֖י בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּֽי־אֶהְיֶ֥ה חָתָ֖ן לַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃

[1 Samuel 18:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.18.18/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:1SA:532` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [1 Samuel 18:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.531/)
- next →: [1 Samuel 18:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.533/)
- ↑ back to [1 Samuel 18:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.18.18/)