---
title: Ezekiel 37:3 (JPS 1917) — And He said unto me: 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answe… · tree and pragmatics
description: And He said unto me: 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered: 'O Lord GOD, Thou knowest.' Who acts: LORD, bones, I, Thou. Ezekiel 37:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ezekiel 37:3 · JPS 1917

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And He said unto me: 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered: 'O Lord GOD, Thou knowest.'

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**Who acts:** LORD, bones, I, Thou · **What happens:** say, live, answer, know · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ezekiel 37:3 · 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 (LORD, bones, I, Thou), 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:EZK:970
# text = And He said unto me: 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered: 'O Lord GOD, Thou knowest.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	15	punct	_	_
8	Son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	vocative	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
13	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	14	det	_	_
14	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
17	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	15	punct	_	_
18	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	_
23	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	25	discourse	_	_
24	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	flat	_	_
25	GOD	GOD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	vocative	_	_
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
27	Thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	28	nsubj	_	_
28	knowest	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	ccomp	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	28	punct	_	_
30	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	28	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=q, act=ask, indirect=0

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | LORD |  |  |  |  | unto me | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **live** | can | this bones |  |  |  |  | Son of man *vocative* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **know** | present | Thou |  |  |  |  | Lord GOD *vocative* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

<!-- .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}

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וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלַ֔י בֶּן־אָדָ֕ם הֲתִחְיֶ֖ינָה הָעֲצָמ֣וֹת הָאֵ֑לֶּה וָאֹמַ֕ר אֲדֹנָ֥י יְהוִ֖ה אַתָּ֥ה יָדָֽעְתָּ׃

[Ezekiel 37:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/EZK.37.3/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EZK:970` 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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