---
title: Ruth 3:8 (JPS 1917) — And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was startled, and turn… · tree and pragmatics
description: And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was startled, and turned himself; and, behold, a woman lay at his feet. Who acts: woman. Ruth 3:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ruth 3:8 · JPS 1917

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And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was startled, and turned himself; and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.

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**Who acts:** woman · **What happens:** come, pass, startle, turn, lie · **To what, where:** end, man, feet

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This is Ruth 3:8 · 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 (woman), 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:RUT:58
# text = And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was startled, and turned himself; and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	expl	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	pass	pass	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj:pass	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux:pass	_	_
13	startled	startle	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	csubj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
17	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	16	obj	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
21	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	25	discourse	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
25	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
26	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	feet	foot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past |  | end |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pass** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | midnight |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **startle** | past · passive |  | the man |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 4 | **turn** | past |  | man |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent himself=Theme |
| 5 | **lie** | past | a woman |  |  | man's feet |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at foot=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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וַיְהִי֙ בַּחֲצִ֣י הַלַּ֔יְלָה וַיֶּחֱרַ֥ד הָאִ֖ישׁ וַיִּלָּפֵ֑ת וְהִנֵּ֣ה אִשָּׁ֔ה שֹׁכֶ֖בֶת מַרְגְּלֹתָֽיו׃

[Ruth 3:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/RUT.3.8/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:RUT:58` 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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