---
title: Jeremiah 8:14 (JPS 1917) — 'Why do we sit still? · tree and pragmatics
description: 'Why do we sit still? Who acts: we. Jeremiah 8:14 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Jeremiah 8:14 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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'Why do we sit still?

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**Who acts:** we · **What happens:** sit

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This is Jeremiah 8:14 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (we), 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:JER:253
# text = 'Why do we sit still?
1	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	_
2	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
3	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	sit	sit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	still	still	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit** | present · do-support | we |  |  |  | still |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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עַל־מָה֙ אֲנַ֣חְנוּ יֹֽשְׁבִ֔ים הֵֽאָסְפ֗וּ וְנָב֛וֹא אֶל־עָרֵ֥י הַמִּבְצָ֖ר וְנִדְּמָה־שָּׁ֑ם כִּי֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֵ֤ינוּ הֲדִמָּ֙נוּ֙ וַיַּשְׁקֵ֣נוּ מֵי־רֹ֔אשׁ כִּ֥י חָטָ֖אנוּ לַיהוָֽה׃

[Jeremiah 8:14: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.8.14/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **'Why do we sit still?**
2. [Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be cut off there; for the LORD our God hath cut us off, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.254/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JER:253` 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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