--- title: Genesis 17:17 (JPS 1917) — Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart:… · tree and pragmatics description: Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart: 'Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?' Who acts: Abraham, Sarah. Genesis 17:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.430/) [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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN/17/) / [17:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.17.17/) / JPS 1 # Genesis 17:17 · JPS 1917 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart: 'Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?' **Who acts:** Abraham, Sarah · **What happens:** fall, laugh, say, bear, be · **To what, where:** face, heart, child · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is Genesis 17:17 · 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 (Abraham, Sarah), 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:430 # text = Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart: 'Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?' 1 Then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 3 advmod _ _ 2 Abraham Abraham PROPN NNP Number=Sing 3 nsubj _ _ 3 fell fall VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 upon upon ADP IN _ 6 case _ _ 5 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 6 nmod:poss _ _ 6 face face NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obl _ _ 7 , , PUNCT , _ 9 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 9 cc _ _ 9 laughed laugh VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 10 , , PUNCT , _ 12 punct _ _ 11 and and CCONJ CC _ 12 cc _ _ 12 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 conj _ _ 13 in in ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 14 his his PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 15 nmod:poss _ _ 15 heart heart NOUN NN Number=Sing 12 obl _ _ 16 : : PUNCT : _ 22 punct _ _ 17 ' ' PUNCT `` _ 22 punct _ _ 18 Shall shall AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 22 aux _ _ 19 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 child child NOUN NN Number=Sing 22 nsubj:pass _ _ 21 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 22 aux:pass _ _ 22 born bear VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 12 ccomp _ _ 23 unto unto ADP IN _ 24 case _ _ 24 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 22 obl _ _ 25 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 30 nsubj _ _ 26 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 30 cop _ _ 27 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 hundred hundred NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 29 nummod _ _ 29 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 30 obl:unmarked _ _ 30 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 24 acl:relcl _ _ 31 ? ? PUNCT . _ 22 punct _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 42 cc _ _ 33 shall shall AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 42 aux _ _ 34 Sarah Sarah PROPN NNP Number=Sing 42 nsubj _ _ 35 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 36 that that PRON WDT PronType=Rel 40 nsubj _ _ 37 is be AUX VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 40 cop _ _ 38 ninety ninety NUM CD NumForm=Word|NumType=Card 39 nummod _ _ 39 years year NOUN NNS Number=Plur 40 obl:unmarked _ _ 40 old old ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 34 acl:relcl _ _ 41 , , PUNCT , _ 40 punct _ _ 42 bear bear VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 22 conj _ _ 43 ? ? PUNCT . _ 42 punct _ _ 44 ' ' PUNCT '' _ 22 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: yes/no question - act: express - voice: character - polarity: none - indirect: yes - teacher: kept the draft | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **fall** | past | Abraham | | | Abraham's face | then | | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon face=Location | | 2 | **laugh** | past | Abraham *not said here* | | | | | | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Abraham *not said here* | | | Abraham's heart | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | | 4 | **bear** | shall · passive | | a child | | | | unto Abraham | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | | 5 | **is** | present | | | | | year | old *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **is** | present | Sarah | | | | year | old *property* | tree rules | | 7 | **bear** | shall | Sarah | | | | | | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer | 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} וַיִּפֹּ֧ל אַבְרָהָ֛ם עַל־פָּנָ֖יו וַיִּצְחָ֑ק וַיֹּ֣אמֶר בְּלִבּ֗וֹ הַלְּבֶ֤ן מֵאָֽה־שָׁנָה֙ יִוָּלֵ֔ד וְאִ֨ם־שָׂרָ֔ה הֲבַת־תִּשְׁעִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה תֵּלֵֽד׃ [Genesis 17:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.17.17/) **Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:GEN:430` 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. - ← previous: [Genesis 17:16 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.429/) - next →: [Genesis 17:18 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.431/) - ↑ back to [Genesis 17:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.17.17/)