---
title: Isaiah 42:20 (JPS 1917) — Seeing many things, thou observest not; opening the ears, he heareth… · tree and pragmatics
description: Seeing many things, thou observest not; opening the ears, he heareth not. Who acts: thou, LORD. Isaiah 42:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 42:20 · JPS 1917

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Seeing many things, thou observest not; opening the ears, he heareth not.

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**Who acts:** thou, LORD · **What happens:** see, not observe, open, not hear · **To what, where:** many things, ears

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This is Isaiah 42:20 · 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 (thou, LORD), 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:929
# text = Seeing many things, thou observest not; opening the ears, he heareth not.
1	Seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	advcl	_	_
2	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
5	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	6	nsubj	_	_
6	observest	observe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	6	advmod	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
9	opening	open	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	heareth	hear	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	14	advmod	_	_
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=assert

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund | thou *not said here* | many things |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 2 | **not** **observe** | present | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **open** | gerund | LORD *not said here* | the ears |  |  |  |  | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location ear=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **hear** | present | LORD |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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}

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רָא֥וֹת רַבּ֖וֹת וְלֹ֣א תִשְׁמֹ֑ר פָּק֥וֹחַ אָזְנַ֖יִם וְלֹ֥א יִשְׁמָֽע׃

[Isaiah 42:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.42.20/)

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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:929` 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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