---
title: Job 12:7 (JPS 1917) — But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of… · tree and pragmatics
description: But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; Who acts: you, beasts. Job 12:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Job 12:7 · JPS 1917

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But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee;

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**Who acts:** you, beasts · **What happens:** ask, teach, tell · **To what, where:** beasts, thee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Job 12:7 · 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 (you, beasts), 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:JOB:289
# text = But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee;
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	2	cc	_	_
2	ask	ask	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	now	now	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	beasts	beast	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	teach	teach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
11	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	10	obj	_	_
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	fowls	fowl	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	air	air	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
24	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	iobj	_	_
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | imperative | you *not said here* | the beasts |  |  | now |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent beast=Recipient |
| 2 | **teach** *speech: other* | shall | beasts *= beast* | thee |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | shall | beasts *= beast* |  | thee |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient |

<!-- .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 -->
וְֽאוּלָ֗ם שְׁאַל־נָ֣א בְהֵמ֣וֹת וְתֹרֶ֑ךָּ וְע֥וֹף הַ֝שָּׁמַ֗יִם וְיַגֶּד־לָֽךְ׃

[Job 12:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.12.7/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JOB:289` 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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