---
title: Deuteronomy 4:12 (JPS 1917) — And the LORD spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard t… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the LORD spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of words, but ye saw no form; only a voice. Who acts: LORD, ye. Deuteronomy 4:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Deuteronomy 4:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the LORD spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of words, but ye saw no form; only a voice.

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**Who acts:** LORD, ye · **What happens:** speak, hear, see · **To what, where:** midst, voice, form · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Deuteronomy 4:12 · 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 (LORD, 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:DEU:124
# text = And the LORD spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of words, but ye saw no form; only a voice.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	spoke	speak	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	_
7	out	out	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	fixed	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	midst	midst	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
15	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	16	nsubj	_	_
16	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	nmod	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
23	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	24	nsubj	_	_
24	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
25	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	26	det	_	_
26	form	form	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	30	punct	_	_
28	only	only	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
29	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	appos	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | past | the LORD |  |  | the midst of the fire |  | unto you | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | past | ye | the voice of words |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer voice=Stimulus |
| 3 | **see** | past | ye | no form |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer form=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 -->
וַיְדַבֵּ֧ר יְהוָ֛ה אֲלֵיכֶ֖ם מִתּ֣וֹךְ הָאֵ֑שׁ ק֤וֹל דְּבָרִים֙ אַתֶּ֣ם שֹׁמְעִ֔ים וּתְמוּנָ֛ה אֵינְכֶ֥ם רֹאִ֖ים זוּלָתִ֥י קֽוֹל׃

[Deuteronomy 4:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.4.12/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:DEU:124` 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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