---
title: Genesis 42:1 (JPS 1917) — Now Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, and Jacob said unto his… · tree and pragmatics
description: Now Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, and Jacob said unto his sons: 'Why do ye look one upon another?' Who acts: Jacob, corn, ye. Genesis 42:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 42:1 · JPS 1917

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Now Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, and Jacob said unto his sons: 'Why do ye look one upon another?'

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**Who acts:** Jacob, corn, ye · **What happens:** see, be, say, look · **To what, where:** Egypt, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 42:1 · 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 (Jacob, corn, ye), 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:1360
# text = Now Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, and Jacob said unto his sons: 'Why do ye look one upon another?'
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	Jacob	Jacob	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
5	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	6	expl	_	_
6	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	Egypt	Egypt	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	Jacob	Jacob	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
14	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obl	_	_
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	_
19	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	22	advmod	_	_
20	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	22	nsubj	_	_
22	look	look	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
23	one	one	PRON	PRP	_	22	obj	_	_
24	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	another	another	PRON	DT	PronType=Ind	22	obl	_	_
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
27	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | Jacob |  |  |  | now |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **be** | past | corn |  |  | Egypt; there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in egypt=Location |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jacob |  |  |  |  | unto Jacob's sons | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **look** | present · do-support | ye | one |  |  |  | upon another | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme one=Attribute |

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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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וַיַּ֣רְא יַעֲקֹ֔ב כִּ֥י יֶשׁ־שֶׁ֖בֶר בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יַעֲקֹב֙ לְבָנָ֔יו לָ֖מָּה תִּתְרָאֽוּ׃

[Genesis 42:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.42.1/)

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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:1360` 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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