---
title: Genesis 38:13 (JPS 1917) — And it was told Tamar, saying: 'Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up t… · tree and pragmatics
description: And it was told Tamar, saying: 'Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnah to shear his sheep.' Who acts: father. Genesis 38:13 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1229/)

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# Genesis 38:13 · JPS 1917

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And it was told Tamar, saying: 'Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnah to shear his sheep.'

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** tell, say, go up, shear · **To what, where:** process, Tamar, Timnah, sheep · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 38:13 · 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 (father), 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:1229
# text = And it was told Tamar, saying: 'Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnah to shear his sheep.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	Tamar	Tamar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
9	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	18	punct	_	_
10	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	18	discourse	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
12	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
14	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	15	punct	_	_
17	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
18	goeth	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
19	up	up	ADV	RP	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Timnah	Timnah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	shear	shear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obj	_	_
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	18	punct	_	_
27	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	18	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=narrate, form=decl

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive |  | process | Tamar |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient tamar=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go up** | present | thy father in law |  | Timnah |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **shear** | to-infinitive | thy father in law *not said here* | Timnah's sheep |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_instr-10.4.2-1 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent sheep=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}

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וַיֻּגַּ֥ד לְתָמָ֖ר לֵאמֹ֑ר הִנֵּ֥ה חָמִ֛יךְ עֹלֶ֥ה תִמְנָ֖תָה לָגֹ֥ז צֹאנֽוֹ׃

[Genesis 38:13: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.13/)

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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:1229` 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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