---
title: Genesis 1:16 (JPS 1917) — And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day… · tree and pragmatics
description: And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars. Who acts: God. Genesis 1:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 1:16 · JPS 1917

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And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.

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**Who acts:** God · **What happens:** make, rule · **To what, where:** two great lights, greater light, lesser light

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This is Genesis 1:16 · 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 (God), 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:17
# text = And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
5	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
6	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	lights	light	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	11	amod	_	_
11	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	appos	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	rule	rule	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
19	lesser	lesser	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	20	amod	_	_
20	light	light	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	rule	rule	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	stars	star	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | God | the two great lights and the stars |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Product |
| 2 | **rule** | to-infinitive | God *not said here* | the greater light and the lesser light *not said here* |  |  | day |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **rule** | to-infinitive | God *not said here* | the lesser light *not said here* |  |  | night |  | vn dub-29.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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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וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֶת־שְׁנֵ֥י הַמְּאֹרֹ֖ת הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים אֶת־הַמָּא֤וֹר הַגָּדֹל֙ לְמֶמְשֶׁ֣לֶת הַיּ֔וֹם וְאֶת־הַמָּא֤וֹר הַקָּטֹן֙ לְמֶמְשֶׁ֣לֶת הַלַּ֔יְלָה וְאֵ֖ת הַכּוֹכָבִֽים׃

[Genesis 1:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.1.16/)

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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:17` 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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- ↑ back to [Genesis 1:16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.1.16/)