---
title: Genesis 38:18 (JPS 1917) — And he said: 'What pledge shall I give thee?' And she said: 'Thy sig… · tree and pragmatics
description: And he said: 'What pledge shall I give thee?' And she said: 'Thy signet and thy cord, and thy staff that is in thy hand.' And he gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. Who acts: Judah, I, Tamar, staff. Genesis 38:18 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics o
---

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# Genesis 38:18 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And he said: 'What pledge shall I give thee?' And she said: 'Thy signet and thy cord, and thy staff that is in thy hand.' And he gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.

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**Who acts:** Judah, I, Tamar, staff · **What happens:** say, give, be, come in, conceive · **To what, where:** pledge, thee, signet, hand, Tamar · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 38:18 · 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 (Judah, I, Tamar, staff), 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:1235
# text = And he said: 'What pledge shall I give thee?' And she said: 'Thy signet and thy cord, and thy staff that is in thy hand.' And he gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	_
6	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	7	det	_	_
7	pledge	pledge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
8	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
11	thee	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	10	iobj	_	_
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
14	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	_
19	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	signet	signet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	cord	cord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	staff	staff	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	_
28	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj	_	_
29	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	acl:relcl	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
34	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
35	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
36	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	nsubj	_	_
37	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
38	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	_
39	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obl	_	_
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	43	cc	_	_
43	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	conj	_	_
44	in	in	ADV	RB	_	43	advmod	_	_
45	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obl	_	_
47	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	50	punct	_	_
48	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	50	cc	_	_
49	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
50	conceived	conceive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	conj	_	_
51	by	by	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	obl	_	_
53	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=decl, act=narrate, indirect=0, polarity=none, voice=narrator

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Judah |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **give** | shall | I | what pledge | thee |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent thou=Recipient pledge=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Tamar | Thy signet and thy cord and thy staff |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent signet=Topic |
| 4 | **is** | present | thy staff |  |  | thy hand |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **give** | past | Judah | signet | Tamar |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Theme to she=Recipient |
| 6 | **come in** | past | Judah *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto Tamar | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **conceive** | past | Tamar |  |  |  |  | by Judah | vn characterize-29.2-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר מָ֣ה הָֽעֵרָבוֹן֮ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶתֶּן־לָּךְ֒ וַתֹּ֗אמֶר חֹתָֽמְךָ֙ וּפְתִילֶ֔ךָ וּמַטְּךָ֖ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּיָדֶ֑ךָ וַיִּתֶּן־לָּ֛הּ וַיָּבֹ֥א אֵלֶ֖יהָ וַתַּ֥הַר לֽוֹ׃

[Genesis 38:18: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.18/)

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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:1235` 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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- ← previous: [Genesis 38:17 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1234/)
- next →: [Genesis 38:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1236/)
- ↑ back to [Genesis 38:18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.18/)