---
title: Isaiah 40:7 (JPS 1917) — The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the breath of the LO… · tree and pragmatics
description: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the breath of the LORD bloweth upon it — surely the people is grass. Who acts: grass, flower, breath, people. Isaiah 40:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Isaiah 40:7 · JPS 1917

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The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the breath of the LORD bloweth upon it — surely the people is grass.

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**Who acts:** grass, flower, breath, people · **What happens:** wither, fade, blow, be · **To what, where:** grass

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This is Isaiah 40:7 · 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 (grass, flower, breath, people), 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:842
# text = The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the breath of the LORD bloweth upon it — surely the people is grass.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	withereth	wither	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	flower	flower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	fadeth	fade	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
9	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
15	bloweth	blow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
16	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obl	_	_
18	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
19	surely	surely	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
22	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
23	grass	grass	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	_
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wither** | present | the grass |  |  |  |  |  | vn entity\_specific\_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **fade** | present | the flower |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **blow** | present | the breath of the LORD |  |  |  |  | upon flower | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **is a** | present | the people | grass |  |  |  | surely *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
יָבֵ֤שׁ חָצִיר֙ נָ֣בֵֽל צִ֔יץ כִּ֛י ר֥וּחַ יְהוָ֖ה נָ֣שְׁבָה בּ֑וֹ אָכֵ֥ן חָצִ֖יר הָעָֽם׃

[Isaiah 40:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.40.7/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ISA:842` 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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