---
title: Genesis 43:28 (JPS 1917) — And they said: 'Thy servant our father is well, he is yet alive.' An… · tree and pragmatics
description: And they said: 'Thy servant our father is well, he is yet alive.' And they bowed the head, and made obeisance. Who acts: sacks, servant, Joseph. Genesis 43:28 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 43:28 · JPS 1917

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And they said: 'Thy servant our father is well, he is yet alive.' And they bowed the head, and made obeisance.

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**Who acts:** sacks, servant, Joseph · **What happens:** say, be, bow, make · **To what, where:** head, obeisance · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 43:28 · 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 (sacks, servant, Joseph), 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:1430
# text = And they said: 'Thy servant our father is well, he is yet alive.' And they bowed the head, and made obeisance.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
6	Thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
8	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	well	well	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	ccomp	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	parataxis	_	_
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
18	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
19	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
21	bowed	bow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
27	obeisance	obeisance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	_
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | sacks *= sack* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | Thy servant |  |  |  |  | well *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | Joseph |  |  |  | yet | alive *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **bow** | past | sacks *= sack* | the head |  |  |  |  | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Topic |
| 5 | **make** | past | sacks *= sack* *not said here* | obeisance |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset obeisance=Product |

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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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיֹּאמְר֗וּ שָׁל֛וֹם לְעַבְדְּךָ֥ לְאָבִ֖ינוּ עוֹדֶ֣נּוּ חָ֑י וַֽיִּקְּד֖וּ וַיִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוּֽוּ׃

[Genesis 43:28: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.43.28/)

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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:1430` 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 43:27 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1429/)
- next →: [Genesis 43:29 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1431/)
- ↑ back to [Genesis 43:28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.43.28/)