---
title: Isaiah 38:15 (JPS 1917) — What shall I say? · tree and pragmatics
description: What shall I say? Who acts: I. Isaiah 38:15 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/ISA.819/)

<!-- 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/) / [Isaiah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA/) / [chapter 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA/38/) / [38:15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.38.15/) / JPS 1

# Isaiah 38:15 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What shall I say?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** say · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Isaiah 38:15 · 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 (I), 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:819
# text = What shall I say?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-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* | shall | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic |

<!-- .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 -->
מָֽה־אֲדַבֵּ֥ר וְאָֽמַר־לִ֖י וְה֣וּא עָשָׂ֑ה אֶדַּדֶּ֥ה כָל־שְׁנוֹתַ֖י עַל־מַ֥ר נַפְשִֽׁי׃

[Isaiah 38:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.38.15/)

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

<!-- .ens -->
1. **What shall I say?**
2. [He hath both spoken unto me, and Himself hath done it; I shall go softly all my years for the bitterness of my soul.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.820/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ISA:819` 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: [Isaiah 38:14 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.818/)
- next →: [Isaiah 38:15 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.820/)
- ↑ back to [Isaiah 38:15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.38.15/)