---
title: 1 Samuel 21:12 (JPS 1917) — And the servants of Achish said unto him: 'Is not this David the kin… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the servants of Achish said unto him: 'Is not this David the king of the land? Who acts: servants, David. 1 Samuel 21:12 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.631/)

<!-- 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 21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA/21/) / [21:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.21.12/) / JPS 1

# 1 Samuel 21:12 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the servants of Achish said unto him: 'Is not this David the king of the land?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** servants, David · **What happens:** say, not be · **To what, where:** king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 1 Samuel 21:12 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 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 (servants, David), 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:631
# text = And the servants of Achish said unto him: 'Is not this David the king of the land?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Achish	Achish	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
10	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	_
11	Is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	16	advmod	_	_
13	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	David	David	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	_
20	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no 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 | the servants of Achish |  |  |  |  | unto Achish | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | present | this David | the king |  |  |  | of the land | 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 -->
וַיֹּ֨אמְר֜וּ עַבְדֵ֤י אָכִישׁ֙ אֵלָ֔יו הֲלוֹא־זֶ֥ה דָוִ֖ד מֶ֣לֶךְ הָאָ֑רֶץ הֲל֣וֹא לָזֶ֗ה יַעֲנ֤וּ בַמְּחֹלוֹת֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר הִכָּ֤ה שָׁאוּל֙ בַּאֲלָפָ֔יו וְדָוִ֖ד בְּרִבְבֹתָֽיו׃

[1 Samuel 21:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.21.12/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. **And the servants of Achish said unto him: 'Is not this David the king of the land?**
2. [Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying: Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.632/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:1SA:631` 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 21:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.630/)
- next →: [1 Samuel 21:12 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.632/)
- ↑ back to [1 Samuel 21:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.21.12/)