---
title: 1 Samuel 26:15 (JPS 1917) — And David said to Abner: 'Art not thou a valiant man? and who is lik… · tree and pragmatics
description: And David said to Abner: 'Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept watch over thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord. Who acts: David, thou, valiant man, one. 1 Samuel 26:15 in JPS 1917 with its depe
---

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# 1 Samuel 26:15 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And David said to Abner: 'Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept watch over thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord.

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**Who acts:** David, thou, valiant man, one · **What happens:** say, not be, be, not keep, come, destroy · **To what, where:** Abner, valiant man, Israel, watch, king · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 1 Samuel 26:15 · 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, thou, valiant man, one), 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:782
# text = And David said to Abner: 'Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept watch over thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord.
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	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Abner	Abner	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
8	Art	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
10	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nsubj	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	valiant	valiant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	like	like	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	conj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	obl	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Israel	Israel	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
24	wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	29	advmod	_	_
25	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	29	advmod	_	_
26	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	29	nsubj	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
30	watch	watch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obj	_	_
31	over	over	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	33	nmod:poss	_	_
33	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	appos	_	_
36	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
37	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	39	mark	_	_
38	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	39	expl	_	_
39	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
40	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	39	nsubj	_	_
41	of	of	ADP	IN	_	43	case	_	_
42	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	43	det	_	_
43	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	40	nmod	_	_
44	in	in	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
45	to	to	PART	TO	_	46	mark	_	_
46	destroy	destroy	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	39	advcl	_	_
47	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
48	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	obj	_	_
49	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	50	nmod:poss	_	_
50	lord	lord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	appos	_	_
51	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed form=q, act=ask, indirect=1

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | David |  | Abner |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to abner=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **is a** | present | thou | a valiant man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | a valiant man |  |  | Israel |  | to thee; like *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **keep** | present · perfect | thou | watch |  |  | then | over thy lord; wherefore *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent watch=Theme over lord=Location |
| 5 | **come** | past | one of the people |  |  | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **destroy** | to-infinitive | one of the people *not said here* | the king |  |  |  |  | vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּאמֶר֩ דָּוִ֨ד אֶל־אַבְנֵ֜ר הֲלוֹא־אִ֣ישׁ אַתָּ֗ה וּמִ֤י כָמ֙וֹךָ֙ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְלָ֙מָּה֙ לֹ֣א שָׁמַ֔רְתָּ אֶל־אֲדֹנֶ֖יךָ הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ כִּי־בָא֙ אַחַ֣ד הָעָ֔ם לְהַשְׁחִ֖ית אֶת־הַמֶּ֥לֶךְ אֲדֹנֶֽיךָ׃

[1 Samuel 26:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/1SA.26.15/)

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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:782` 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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