---
title: Genesis 1:2 (JPS 1917) — Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face… · tree and pragmatics
description: Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. Who acts: earth, darkness, spirit. Genesis 1:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 1:2 · JPS 1917

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Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.

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**Who acts:** earth, darkness, spirit · **What happens:** be, hover · **To what, where:** face

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This is Genesis 1:2 · 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 (earth, darkness, spirit), 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:GEN:1
# text = Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
5	unformed	unform	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	void	void	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	conj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	darkness	darkness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	deep	deep	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	_
24	hovered	hover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
25	over	over	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	nmod	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the earth |  |  |  | now | unform *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **be** |  | the earth *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | darkness |  |  |  |  | upon the face; of the deep | tree rules |
| 4 | **hover** | past | the spirit of God |  |  | the face of the waters |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over face=Location |

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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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וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

[Genesis 1:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.1.2/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:GEN:1` 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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