---
title: Genesis 11:7 (JPS 1917) — Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they m… · tree and pragmatics
description: Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' Who acts: you, us, language, one. Genesis 11:7 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.285/)

<!-- 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 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN/11/) / [11:7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.11.7/) / JPS 1

# Genesis 11:7 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.'

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, us, language, one · **What happens:** come, let, go down, confound, not understand, speak · **To what, where:** us, language, speech · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Genesis 11:7 · 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 (you, us, language, one), 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:285
# text = Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.'
1	Come	come	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	let	let	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
4	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	down	down	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	10	advmod	_	_
10	confound	confound	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	conj	_	_
11	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
15	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
16	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	advcl	_	_
19	one	one	PRON	CD	PronType=Rcp	22	nmod:poss	_	_
20	another	another	PRON	DT	PronType=Ind	19	fixed	_	_
21	's	's	PART	POS	_	19	case	_	_
22	speech	speech	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
24	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: suggest
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | imperative | you *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **let** | infinitive | you *not said here* | us |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go down** | infinitive | us *not said here* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **confound** | infinitive | you *not said here* | children's language |  | there |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus language=Experiencer |
| 5 | **not** **understand** | may | language | one's speech |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer speech=Stimulus |
| 6 | **speak** |  | one |  |  |  |  |  | nom speech «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
הָ֚בָה נֵֽרְדָ֔ה וְנָבְלָ֥ה שָׁ֖ם שְׂפָתָ֑ם אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁמְע֔וּ אִ֖ישׁ שְׂפַ֥ת רֵעֵֽהוּ׃

[Genesis 11:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.11.7/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:GEN:285` 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 11:6 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.284/)
- next →: [Genesis 11:8 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.286/)
- ↑ back to [Genesis 11:7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.11.7/)