---
title: Genesis 11:5 (JPS 1917) — And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the chil… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. Who acts: LORD, children. Genesis 11:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 11:5 · JPS 1917

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And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

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**Who acts:** LORD, children · **What happens:** come down, see, build · **To what, where:** city

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This is Genesis 11:5 · 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 (LORD, children), 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:283
# text = And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	conj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nmod	_	_
19	builded	build	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come down** | past | the LORD |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **see** | to-infinitive | the LORD *not said here* | the city and the tower |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer city=Stimulus |
| 3 | **build** | past | the children of men | the city and the tower |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=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}

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וַיֵּ֣רֶד יְהוָ֔ה לִרְאֹ֥ת אֶת־הָעִ֖יר וְאֶת־הַמִּגְדָּ֑ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּנ֖וּ בְּנֵ֥י הָאָדָֽם׃

[Genesis 11:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.11.5/)

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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:283` 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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