---
title: Genesis 18:15 (JPS 1917) — And He said: 'Nay; but thou didst laugh.' · tree and pragmatics
description: And He said: 'Nay; but thou didst laugh.' Who acts: water, thou. Genesis 18:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 18:15 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2

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And He said: 'Nay; but thou didst laugh.'

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**Who acts:** water, thou · **What happens:** say, laugh · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 18:15 · JPS 1917, sentence 2 of 2 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 (water, thou), 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:457
# text = And He said: 'Nay; but thou didst laugh.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	_
6	Nay	nay	INTJ	UH	_	11	discourse	_	_
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nsubj	_	_
10	didst	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
13	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: disagree
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | water |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **laugh** | past · do-support | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: 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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וַתְּכַחֵ֨שׁ שָׂרָ֧ה ׀ לֵאמֹ֛ר לֹ֥א צָחַ֖קְתִּי כִּ֣י ׀ יָרֵ֑אָה וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ׀ לֹ֖א כִּ֥י צָחָֽקְתְּ׃

[Genesis 18:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.18.15/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. [Then Sarah denied, saying: 'I laughed not'; for she was afraid.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.456/)
2. **And He said: 'Nay; but thou didst laugh.'**

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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:457` 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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