---
title: Joshua 24:21 (JPS 1917) — And the people said unto Joshua: 'Nay; but we will serve the LORD.' · tree and pragmatics
description: And the people said unto Joshua: 'Nay; but we will serve the LORD.' Who acts: people, we. Joshua 24:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Joshua 24:21 · JPS 1917

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And the people said unto Joshua: 'Nay; but we will serve the LORD.'

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**Who acts:** people, we · **What happens:** say, serve · **To what, where:** LORD · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Joshua 24:21 · 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 (people, 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:JOS:668
# text = And the people said unto Joshua: 'Nay; but we will serve the LORD.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Joshua	Joshua	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
8	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
9	Nay	nay	INTJ	UH	_	4	ccomp	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
12	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	serve	serve	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	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 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the people |  |  |  |  | unto Joshua | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **serve** | future | we | the LORD |  |  |  |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lord=Attribute |

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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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר הָעָ֖ם אֶל־יְהוֹשֻׁ֑עַ לֹ֕א כִּ֥י אֶת־יְהוָ֖ה נַעֲבֹֽד׃

[Joshua 24:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JOS.24.21/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JOS:668` 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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