---
title: Isaiah 21:12 (JPS 1917) — The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night — if ye w… · tree and pragmatics
description: The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night — if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.' Who acts: watchman, morning, ye. Isaiah 21:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 21:12 · JPS 1917

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The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night — if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.'

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**Who acts:** watchman, morning, ye · **What happens:** say, come, inquire, return · **To what, where:** ye · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Isaiah 21:12 · 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 (watchman, morning, ye), 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:ISA:433
# text = The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night — if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.'
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	watchman	watchman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
6	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	cometh	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	also	also	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	conj	_	_
14	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	inquire	inquire	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
20	inquire	inquire	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
21	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	obj	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
23	return	return	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	20	parataxis	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
25	come	come	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	23	parataxis	_	_
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
27	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=assert

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the watchman |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | present | the morning |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **inquire** *speech: other* *a condition, not said to happen* | future | ye |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **inquire** *speech: other* | infinitive |  | ye |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent ye=Recipient |
| 5 | **return** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **come** | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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אָמַ֣ר שֹׁמֵ֔ר אָתָ֥ה בֹ֖קֶר וְגַם־לָ֑יְלָה אִם־תִּבְעָי֥וּן בְּעָ֖יוּ שֻׁ֥בוּ אֵתָֽיוּ׃ס

[Isaiah 21:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.21.12/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ISA:433` 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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