---
title: Exodus 14:11 (JPS 1917) — And they said unto Moses: 'Because there were no graves in Egypt, ha… · tree and pragmatics
description: And they said unto Moses: 'Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt? Who acts: children, graves, thou. Exodus 14:11 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every 
---

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# Exodus 14:11 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And they said unto Moses: 'Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** children, graves, thou · **What happens:** say, be, take away, die, deal, bring · **To what, where:** us, Egypt · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Exodus 14:11 · 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 (children, graves, thou), 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:EXO:395
# text = And they said unto Moses: 'Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt?
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	_
8	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	Case=Nom|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	10	expl	_	_
10	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
11	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	12	det	_	_
12	graves	grave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
16	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	18	nsubj	_	_
18	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
19	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	away	away	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
23	in	in	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	wilderness	wilderness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
27	wherefore	wherefore	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	30	advmod	_	_
28	hast	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	30	nsubj	_	_
30	dealt	deal	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	conj	_	_
31	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	30	obl	_	_
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
37	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	forth	forth	ADV	RB	_	36	advmod	_	_
39	out	out	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
40	of	of	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
41	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	_
42	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=ask, polarity=none

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | unto Moses | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **be** | past | no graves in Egypt |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **take away** | present · perfect | thou | us |  |  |  | away *property* | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent we=Theme |
| 4 | **die** | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the wilderness | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in wilderness=Attribute |
| 5 | **deal** | present · perfect | thou |  |  |  |  | with us; thus, wherefore *property* | vn cope-83 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with we=Theme |
| 6 | **bring** | to-infinitive | thou *not said here* | us |  | Egypt |  | forth *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent we=Theme out egypt=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּאמְרוּ֮ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה֒ הַֽמִבְּלִ֤י אֵין־קְבָרִים֙ בְּמִצְרַ֔יִם לְקַחְתָּ֖נוּ לָמ֣וּת בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר מַה־זֹּאת֙ עָשִׂ֣יתָ לָּ֔נוּ לְהוֹצִיאָ֖נוּ מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃

[Exodus 14:11: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/EXO.14.11/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:EXO:395` 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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