---
title: Genesis 11:8 (JPS 1917) — So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all t… · tree and pragmatics
description: So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city. Who acts: LORD, language. Genesis 11:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 11:8 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.

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**Who acts:** LORD, language · **What happens:** scatter, leave off, build · **To what, where:** language, face, city

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This is Genesis 11:8 · 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, language), 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:286
# text = So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	scattered	scatter	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	abroad	abroad	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	thence	thence	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
9	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
16	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
20	off	off	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	build	build	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **scatter** | past | the LORD | language |  | the face of all earth |  | abroad, thence *property* | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme upon face=Destination |
| 2 | **leave off** | past | language |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **build** | to-infinitive | language *not said here* | the city |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset city=Product |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיָּ֨פֶץ יְהוָ֥ה אֹתָ֛ם מִשָּׁ֖ם עַל־פְּנֵ֣י כָל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וַֽיַּחְדְּל֖וּ לִבְנֹ֥ת הָעִֽיר׃

[Genesis 11:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.11.8/)

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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:286` 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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