---
title: Genesis 2:16 (JPS 1917) — And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: 'Of every tree of the ga… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; Who acts: LORD, thou. Genesis 2:16 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 2:16 · JPS 1917

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And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;

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**Who acts:** LORD, thou · **What happens:** command, say, eat · **To what, where:** man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 2:16 · 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, 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:50
# text = And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	5	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	flat	_	_
5	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
9	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	21	punct	_	_
11	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	21	punct	_	_
12	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	14	det	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	garden	garden	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	21	nsubj	_	_
19	mayest	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	freely	freely	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
22	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	5	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 | **command** | past | the LORD | the man |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the LORD *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **eat** | may | thou |  |  |  |  | of every tree of the garden; freely *property* | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent of tree=Source |

<!-- .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}

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וַיְצַו֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֔ים עַל־הָֽאָדָ֖ם לֵאמֹ֑ר מִכֹּ֥ל עֵֽץ־הַגָּ֖ן אָכֹ֥ל תֹּאכֵֽל׃

[Genesis 2:16: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.2.16/)

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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:50` 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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