---
title: 1 Samuel 20:10 (JPS 1917) — Then said David to Jonathan: 'Who shall tell me if perchance thy fat… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then said David to Jonathan: 'Who shall tell me if perchance thy father answer thee roughly?' Who acts: David, father. 1 Samuel 20:10 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.585/)

<!-- 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 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA/20/) / [20:10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.20.10/) / JPS 1

# 1 Samuel 20:10 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then said David to Jonathan: 'Who shall tell me if perchance thy father answer thee roughly?'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** David, father · **What happens:** say, tell, answer · **To what, where:** Jonathan, me, thee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 1 Samuel 20:10 · 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, father), 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:585
# text = Then said David to Jonathan: 'Who shall tell me if perchance thy father answer thee roughly?'
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	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Jonathan	Jonathan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
8	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	10	nsubj	_	_
9	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
11	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
12	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	perchance	perchance	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
14	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	answer	answer	VERB	VB	Mood=Sub|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
17	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	obj	_	_
18	roughly	roughly	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
20	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-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 | David |  | Jonathan |  | then |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient whether/if S»: agent=Pivot to jonathan=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | shall |  |  | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent i=Recipient |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* *a condition, not said to happen* | infinitive | thy father | thee |  |  |  | perchance, roughly *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent thou=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 דָּוִד֙ אֶל־יְה֣וֹנָתָ֔ן מִ֖י יַגִּ֣יד לִ֑י א֛וֹ מַה־יַּעַנְךָ֥ אָבִ֖יךָ קָשָֽׁה׃ס

[1 Samuel 20:10: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.20.10/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:1SA:585` 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 20:9 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.584/)
- next →: [1 Samuel 20:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.586/)
- ↑ back to [1 Samuel 20:10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.20.10/)