---
title: Genesis 18:27 (JPS 1917) — And Abraham answered and said: 'Behold now, I have taken upon me to… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Abraham answered and said: 'Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes. Who acts: Abraham, I, Lord. Genesis 18:27 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 18:27 · JPS 1917

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And Abraham answered and said: 'Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.

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**Who acts:** Abraham, I, Lord · **What happens:** answer, say, take, speak, be · **To what, where:** dust · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 18:27 · 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, I, Lord), 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:469
# text = And Abraham answered and said: 'Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Abraham	Abraham	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
5	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	5	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
8	Behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	13	discourse	_	_
9	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
11	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	ccomp	_	_
14	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
18	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	Lord	Lord	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
23	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
24	but	but	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	dust	dust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	acl:relcl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	conj	_	_
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- 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 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Abraham |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Abraham *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  | now | upon me | vn require-103 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Precondition |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  | unto the Lord | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | present | the Lord | dust and ashes |  |  |  | but *property* | tree rules |

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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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וַיַּ֥עַן אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּאמַ֑ר הִנֵּה־נָ֤א הוֹאַ֙לְתִּי֙ לְדַבֵּ֣ר אֶל־אֲדֹנָ֔י וְאָנֹכִ֖י עָפָ֥ר וָאֵֽפֶר׃

[Genesis 18:27: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.18.27/)

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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:469` 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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