---
title: Judges 9:11 (JPS 1917) — But the fig-tree said unto them: Should I leave my sweetness, and my… · tree and pragmatics
description: But the fig-tree said unto them: Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruitage, and go to hold sway over the trees? Who acts: fig tree, I. Judges 9:11 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Judges 9:11 · JPS 1917

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But the fig-tree said unto them: Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruitage, and go to hold sway over the trees?

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**Who acts:** fig tree, I · **What happens:** say, leave, go, hold · **To what, where:** sweetness, sway, trees · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Judges 9:11 · 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 (fig tree, 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:JDG:271
# text = But the fig-tree said unto them: Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruitage, and go to hold sway over the trees?
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	fig	fig	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
4	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	3	punct	_	_
5	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	_
9	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
10	Should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	leave	leave	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	sweetness	sweetness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
17	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	fruitage	fruitage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	hold	hold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
25	sway	sway	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
26	over	over	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	_
29	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the fig tree |  |  |  |  | unto men *= man* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **leave** | should | I | my sweetness and my good fruitage |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sweetness=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hold** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | sway |  | the trees |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent sway=Theme over tree=Location |

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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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וַתֹּ֤אמֶר לָהֶם֙ הַתְּאֵנָ֔ה הֶחֳדַ֙לְתִּי֙ אֶת־מָתְקִ֔י וְאֶת־תְּנוּבָתִ֖י הַטּוֹבָ֑ה וְהָ֣לַכְתִּ֔י לָנ֖וּעַ עַל־הָעֵצִֽים׃

[Judges 9:11: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JDG.9.11/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JDG:271` 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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