---
title: Genesis 2:7 (JPS 1917) — Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Who acts: LORD God, man. Genesis 2:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 2:7 · JPS 1917

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Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

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**Who acts:** LORD God, man · **What happens:** form, breathe, become · **To what, where:** man, breath, nostrils, living soul

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This is Genesis 2:7 · 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 (LORD God, man), 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:40
# text = Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	formed	form	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	breathed	breathe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
16	into	into	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	nostrils	nostril	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	obl	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	breath	breath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	26	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	nsubj	_	_
26	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
27	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
28	living	live	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	amod	_	_
29	soul	soul	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	xcomp	_	_
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	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 | **form** | past | the LORD God | man of the dust of the ground |  |  | then |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location man=Theme |
| 2 | **breathe** | past | the LORD God *not said here* | the breath of life |  | God's nostrils |  |  | vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breath=Theme |
| 3 | **become** | past | man | a living soul |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
וַיִּיצֶר֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַֽיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה׃

[Genesis 2:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.2.7/)

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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:40` 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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