---
title: Lamentations 2:12 (JPS 1917) — They say to their mothers: 'Where is corn and wine?' when they swoon… · tree and pragmatics
description: They say to their mothers: 'Where is corn and wine?' when they swoon as the wounded in the broad places of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers' bosom. Who acts: children, corn, mothers. Lamentations 2:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.38/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Lamentations](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM/) / [chapter 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM/2/) / [2:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.2.12/) / JPS 1

# Lamentations 2:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They say to their mothers: 'Where is corn and wine?' when they swoon as the wounded in the broad places of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers' bosom.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children, corn, mothers · **What happens:** say, be, swoon, pour out, bosom · **To what, where:** mothers, broad places, soul, bosom · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Lamentations 2:12 · 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 (children, corn, mothers), 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:LAM:38
# text = They say to their mothers: 'Where is corn and wine?' when they swoon as the wounded in the broad places of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers' bosom.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	2	ccomp	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
10	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	wine	wine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
14	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
15	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	swoon	swoon	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
18	as	as	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	wounded	wounded	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	obl	_	_
21	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	broad	broad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	places	place	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
30	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
31	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	poured	pour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	advcl	_	_
34	out	out	ADP	RP	_	33	compound:prt	_	_
35	into	into	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
36	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	37	nmod:poss	_	_
37	mothers	mother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	39	nmod:poss	_	_
38	'	's	PART	POS	_	37	case	_	_
39	bosom	bosom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | children *= child* |  | children's mothers |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to mother=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | present | corn and wine |  |  |  |  | where *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **swoon** | present | children *= child* |  |  | the broad places of the city |  | as the wounded | vn change\_bodily\_state-40.8.4 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **pour out** | present · passive |  | children's soul |  | children's mothers's bosom |  |  | vn pour-9.5 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: subject=Theme into bosom=Destination |
| 5 | **bosom** |  | children's mothers |  |  |  |  |  | nom bosom «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
לְאִמֹּתָם֙ יֹֽאמְר֔וּ אַיֵּ֖ה דָּגָ֣ן וָיָ֑יִן בְּהִֽתְעַטְּפָ֤ם כֶּֽחָלָל֙ בִּרְחֹב֣וֹת עִ֔יר בְּהִשְׁתַּפֵּ֣ךְ נַפְשָׁ֔ם אֶל־חֵ֖יק אִמֹּתָֽם׃ס

[Lamentations 2:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.2.12/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:LAM:38` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Lamentations 2:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.37/)
- next →: [Lamentations 2:13 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/LAM.39/)
- ↑ back to [Lamentations 2:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/LAM.2.12/)