---
title: Genesis 18:9 (JPS 1917) — And they said unto him: 'Where is Sarah thy wife?' And he said: 'Beh… · tree and pragmatics
description: And they said unto him: 'Where is Sarah thy wife?' And he said: 'Behold, in the tent.' Who acts: curd, Abraham. Genesis 18:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 18:9 · JPS 1917

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And they said unto him: 'Where is Sarah thy wife?' And he said: 'Behold, in the tent.'

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**Who acts:** curd, Abraham · **What happens:** say, be · **To what, where:** Sarah · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 18:9 · 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 (curd, Abraham), 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:449
# text = And they said unto him: 'Where is Sarah thy wife?' And he said: 'Behold, in the tent.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	Sarah	Sarah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
11	thy	thy	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	appos	_	_
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
14	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
15	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
18	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
19	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	_
20	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	17	discourse	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
22	in	in	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	tent	tent	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	ccomp	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	_
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed indirect=0

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | curd |  |  |  |  | unto Abraham | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present |  | Sarah |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Abraham |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

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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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וַיֹּאמְר֣וּ אֵׄלָׄ֔יׄוׄאַיֵּ֖ה שָׂרָ֣ה אִשְׁתֶּ֑ךָ וַיֹּ֖אמֶר הִנֵּ֥ה בָאֹֽהֶל׃

[Genesis 18:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.18.9/)

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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:449` 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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