Psalm 1/Analytic

Note: even this small amount of prose should perhaps be converted to a series of comments on the visualisations, with associated sketches?

For those who want to internalise this most, should we even have a step-by-step in which they build their OWN diagrams?

Grammatical relations

Below is the sentence diagram for Psalm 1:1, with coloured boxes superimposed to explain. The purpose of the sentence diagram is to demonstrate the grammatical relations in a clause, with no regard for word order.

1. Each clause nucleus is one straight line, with the subject on the right (NOT a comment on word order, but a practical way to divide subject from predicate), with a red box, divided by a vertical line (cutting all the way through the horizontal line) from the predicate. The verb (in a green box) is to the left of the line, where the clause has an explicit verb.
2. Construct chains are stair steps descending to the left, as shown with אַשְׁרֵי הָאִישׁ, the subject of v. 1, as well as עֲצַת רְשָׁעִים, etc. in the compound relative clause. The absolute form (and additional construct forms, for a long chain) are in yellow, on the stair steps.
3. Prepositional phrases are descend with a diagonal stair step to the left, with the preposition on the diagonal line (slightly elevated) and the object of the preposition on the horizontal line, both in purple.
4. Adjectives and adverbs are under the word they modify, as with the article (in orange) and the negator (in blue).
5. Particles are in grey, connected with dashed lines to the words, phrases or clauses they govern.
6. Compound items are connected by diagonal lines linking the horizontal lines, as shown with the triple compound relative clause here.

The below sentence diagrams (a modified Reed-Kellogg diagram) have the clause-initial word(s) highlighted, green if verbal and yellow if non-verbal.

Verses 1-3

Immediately apparent from this diagram is the triple triple: three compound clauses with three clauses in each, for both what the righteous do not do, what they do do, and what will become of them. If word order is used structurally, then the verb-initial clauses could reasonably be understood to start separate sections, on what the righteous do (not) do, and what becomes of them.

The grammatical dependencies mirror the semantics: the compound clauses expressing what the righteous reject are a dead-end, whereas the clauses with what the righteous pursue sprout further relative clauses, depicting the fruit of the righteous. This structure depends on understanding אֲשֶׁר as a relative particle, not a relative pronoun. The righteous will be like a tree, regarding which, it yields fruit, its leaf does not wither, and whatever it does prospers. A smooth English translation requires multiple relative pronouns for the same effect: a tree, which yields its fruit, whose leaf does not wither, and the periphrastic whatever it does prospers.

Verses 4-6