---
title: Isaiah 40:21 (JPS 1917) — Have ye not understood the foundations of the earth? · tree and pragmatics
description: Have ye not understood the foundations of the earth? Who acts: ye. Isaiah 40:21 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/neviim/jps/ISA.860/)

<!-- 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/) / [Nevi'im](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/) / [Isaiah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA/) / [chapter 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA/40/) / [40:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.40.21/) / JPS 3

# Isaiah 40:21 · JPS 1917, sentence 3 of 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Have ye not understood the foundations of the earth?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ye · **What happens:** not understand · **To what, where:** foundations

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Isaiah 40:21 · JPS 1917, sentence 3 of 3 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 (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:860
# text = Have ye not understood the foundations of the earth?
1	Have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
2	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	4	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	understood	understand	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	foundations	foundation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **understand** | present · perfect | ye | the foundations of the earth |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer foundation=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 -->
הֲל֤וֹא תֵֽדְעוּ֙ הֲל֣וֹא תִשְׁמָ֔עוּ הֲל֛וֹא הֻגַּ֥ד מֵרֹ֖אשׁ לָכֶ֑ם הֲלוֹא֙ הֲבִ֣ינֹתֶ֔ם מוֹסְד֖וֹת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

[Isaiah 40:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.40.21/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. [Know ye not? hear ye not?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.858/)
2. [Hath it not been told you from the beginning?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.859/)
3. **Have ye not understood the foundations of the earth?**

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ISA:860` 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: [Isaiah 40:21 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.859/)
- next →: [Isaiah 40:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.861/)
- ↑ back to [Isaiah 40:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/ISA.40.21/)