---
title: Isaiah 42:3 (JPS 1917) — A bruised reed shall he not break, and the dimly burning wick shall… · tree and pragmatics
description: A bruised reed shall he not break, and the dimly burning wick shall he not quench; he shall make the right to go forth according to the truth. Who acts: soul. Isaiah 42:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 42:3 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the dimly burning wick shall he not quench; he shall make the right to go forth according to the truth.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** soul · **What happens:** not break, burn, not quench, make, go · **To what, where:** bruised reed, burning wick, right

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This is Isaiah 42:3 · 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 (soul), 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:909
# text = A bruised reed shall he not break, and the dimly burning wick shall he not quench; he shall make the right to go forth according to the truth.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	bruised	bruise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	reed	reed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
4	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	break	break	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	dimly	dimly	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	13	amod	_	_
13	wick	wick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
14	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	quench	quench	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	parataxis	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	right	right	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	acl	_	_
26	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
27	according	accord	ADP	VBG	ExtPos=ADP	30	case	_	_
28	to	to	ADP	IN	_	27	fixed	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **break** | shall | soul | a bruised reed |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer reed=Patient |
| 2 | **burn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | dimly *property* | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **quench** | shall | soul | the burning wick |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus wick=Experiencer |
| 4 | **make** | shall | soul | the right |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent right=Product |
| 5 | **go** | to-infinitive | soul *not said here* | the right *not said here* |  |  |  | accord the truth; forth *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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 -->
קָנֶ֤ה רָצוּץ֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁבּ֔וֹר וּפִשְׁתָּ֥ה כֵהָ֖ה לֹ֣א יְכַבֶּ֑נָּה לֶאֱמֶ֖ת יוֹצִ֥יא מִשְׁפָּֽט׃

[Isaiah 42:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.42.3/)

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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:909` 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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