---
title: Genesis 38:21 (JPS 1917) — Then he asked the men of her place, saying: 'Where is the harlot, th… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then he asked the men of her place, saying: 'Where is the harlot, that was at Enaim by the wayside?' And they said: 'There hath been no harlot here.' Who acts: Judah, harlot, men. Genesis 38:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1238/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Torah](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/) / [Genesis](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN/) / [chapter 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN/38/) / [38:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.21/) / JPS 1

# Genesis 38:21 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then he asked the men of her place, saying: 'Where is the harlot, that was at Enaim by the wayside?' And they said: 'There hath been no harlot here.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Judah, harlot, men · **What happens:** ask, say, be · **To what, where:** men, harlot, Enaim · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 38:21 · 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, harlot, men), 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:1238
# text = Then he asked the men of her place, saying: 'Where is the harlot, that was at Enaim by the wayside?' And they said: 'There hath been no harlot here.'
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	3	advcl	_	_
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
12	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	_
13	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	16	advmod	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	harlot	harlot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	ccomp	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	at	at	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	Enaim	Enaim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	acl:relcl	_	_
22	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	wayside	wayside	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
27	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
30	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
31	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	_
32	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	34	expl	_	_
33	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	ccomp	_	_
35	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	36	det	_	_
36	harlot	harlot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nsubj	_	_
37	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	34	advmod	_	_
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	_
39	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed form=decl, act=ask, form=wh

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Judah |  | the men of kid's place |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent man=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | Judah *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | the harlot |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | the harlot |  |  | Enaim |  | by the wayside | tree rules |
| 5 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 6 | **be** | present · perfect | no harlot |  |  | here; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּשְׁאַ֞ל אֶת־אַנְשֵׁ֤י מְקֹמָהּ֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר אַיֵּ֧ה הַקְּדֵשָׁ֛ה הִ֥וא בָעֵינַ֖יִם עַל־הַדָּ֑רֶךְ וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ לֹא־הָיְתָ֥ה בָזֶ֖ה קְדֵשָֽׁה׃

[Genesis 38:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.21/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:GEN:1238` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Genesis 38:20 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1237/)
- next →: [Genesis 38:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1239/)
- ↑ back to [Genesis 38:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.38.21/)