---
title: Deuteronomy 27:20 (JPS 1917) — Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he hath unco… · tree and pragmatics
description: Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he hath uncovered his father's skirt. Who acts: Amen. Deuteronomy 27:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Deuteronomy 27:20 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he hath uncovered his father's skirt.

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**Who acts:** Amen · **What happens:** curse, lie, uncover · **To what, where:** Amen, skirt

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This is Deuteronomy 27:20 · 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 (Amen), 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:724
# text = Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he hath uncovered his father's skirt.
1	Cursed	curse	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
2	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	aux:pass	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	5	nsubj	_	_
5	lieth	lie	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
6	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	_
9	's	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
12	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	uncovered	uncover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	1	advcl	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	skirt	skirt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: express
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=express, voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **curse** | infinitive · passive |  | Amen |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 2 | **lie** | present |  |  |  |  |  | with Amen's father's wife | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **uncover** | present · perfect | Amen | Amen's father's skirt |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

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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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אָר֗וּר שֹׁכֵב֙ עִם־אֵ֣שֶׁת אָבִ֔יו כִּ֥י גִלָּ֖ה כְּנַ֣ף אָבִ֑יו וְאָמַ֥ר כָּל־הָעָ֖ם אָמֵֽן׃ס

[Deuteronomy 27:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/DEU.27.20/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he hath uncovered his father's skirt.**
2. [And all the people shall say: Amen.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/DEU.725/)

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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:724` 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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