---
title: 2 Samuel 3:11 (JPS 1917) — And he could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him. · tree and pragmatics
description: And he could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him. Who acts: David. 2 Samuel 3:11 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# 2 Samuel 3:11 · JPS 1917

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And he could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.

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**Who acts:** David · **What happens:** not answer, fear · **To what, where:** word, Abner

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This is 2 Samuel 3:11 · 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), 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:80
# text = And he could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	Abner	Abner	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	iobj	_	_
7	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	feared	fear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=narrator

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | could | David | another word | Abner |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent abner=Theme word=Eventuality |
| 2 | **fear** | past | David | Abner |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus |

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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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וְלֹֽא־יָכֹ֣ל ע֔וֹד לְהָשִׁ֥יב אֶת־אַבְנֵ֖ר דָּבָ֑ר מִיִּרְאָת֖וֹ אֹתֽוֹ׃ס

[2 Samuel 3:11: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/2SA.3.11/)

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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:80` 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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