---
title: 1 Samuel 20:4 (JPS 1917) — Then said Jonathan unto David: 'What doth thy soul desire, that I sh… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then said Jonathan unto David: 'What doth thy soul desire, that I should do it for thee?' Who acts: Jonathan, soul, I. 1 Samuel 20:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 1 Samuel 20:4 · JPS 1917

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Then said Jonathan unto David: 'What doth thy soul desire, that I should do it for thee?'

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**Who acts:** Jonathan, soul, I · **What happens:** say, desire, do · **To what, where:** soul · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is 1 Samuel 20:4 · 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 (Jonathan, soul, 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:579
# text = Then said Jonathan unto David: 'What doth thy soul desire, that I should do it for thee?'
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	2	advmod	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Jonathan	Jonathan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	_
8	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	obj	_	_
9	doth	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
10	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	desire	desire	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	advcl	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	for	for	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	17	obl	_	_
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed act=ask

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jonathan |  |  |  | then | unto David | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **desire** | present · do-support | thy soul |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=Theme |
| 3 | **do** | should | I | soul |  |  |  | for thee | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

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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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וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהוֹנָתָ֖ן אֶל־דָּוִ֑ד מַה־תֹּאמַ֥ר נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וְאֶֽעֱשֶׂה־לָּֽךְ׃פ

[1 Samuel 20:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.20.4/)

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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:579` 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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