---
title: 2 Samuel 14:4 (JPS 1917) — And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face… · tree and pragmatics
description: And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and prostrated herself, and said: 'Help, O king.' Who acts: woman. 2 Samuel 14:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 2 Samuel 14:4 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and prostrated herself, and said: 'Help, O king.'

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**Who acts:** woman · **What happens:** speak, fall, prostrate, say, help · **To what, where:** face, woman · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is 2 Samuel 14:4 · 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 (woman), 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:2SA:387
# text = And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and prostrated herself, and said: 'Help, O king.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Tekoa	Tekoa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
8	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
17	to	to	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	prostrated	prostrate	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
23	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obj	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
27	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
28	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	29	punct	_	_
29	Help	help	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	26	ccomp	_	_
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	32	discourse	_	_
32	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	vocative	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	29	punct	_	_
34	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	29	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: other
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=other, act=narrate, voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the woman of Tekoa |  |  |  |  | to the king | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to king=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **fall** | past | woman |  |  | woman's face |  | to the ground | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on face=Location |
| 3 | **prostrate** | past | woman *not said here* | woman |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **help** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | king *vocative* | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַ֠תֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁ֤ה הַתְּקֹעִית֙ אֶל־הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ וַתִּפֹּ֧ל עַל־אַפֶּ֛יהָ אַ֖רְצָה וַתִּשְׁתָּ֑חוּ וַתֹּ֖אמֶר הוֹשִׁ֥עָה הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃ס

[2 Samuel 14:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.14.4/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:2SA:387` 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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