---
title: Isaiah 28:20 (JPS 1917) — For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself; and the cover… · tree and pragmatics
description: For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself; and the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up. Who acts: bed, man. Isaiah 28:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 28:20 · JPS 1917

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For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself; and the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up.

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**Who acts:** bed, man · **What happens:** be, stretch, gather up · **To what, where:** man

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This is Isaiah 28:20 · 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 (bed, man), 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:ISA:580
# text = For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself; and the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	too	too	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	short	short	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	stretch	stretch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
12	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	11	obj	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	covering	covering	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
17	too	too	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
18	narrow	narrow	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
19	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	21	mark	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	gathereth	gather	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
22	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	21	obj	_	_
23	up	up	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | the bed |  |  |  |  | short *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **stretch** | to-infinitive | a man | man |  |  |  |  | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 3 | **gather up** | present | man | man |  |  |  |  | vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
כִּֽי־קָצַ֥ר הַמַּצָּ֖ע מֵֽהִשְׂתָּרֵ֑עַ וְהַמַּסֵּכָ֥ה צָ֖רָה כְּהִתְכַּנֵּֽס׃

[Isaiah 28:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.28.20/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ISA:580` 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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