---
title: Genesis 20:2 (JPS 1917) — And Abraham said of Sarah his wife: 'She is my sister.' And Abimelec… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Abraham said of Sarah his wife: 'She is my sister.' And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. Who acts: Abraham, wife, Abimelech king. Genesis 20:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 20:2 · JPS 1917

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And Abraham said of Sarah his wife: 'She is my sister.' And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

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**Who acts:** Abraham, wife, Abimelech king · **What happens:** say, be, send, take · **To what, where:** sister, Sarah · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 20:2 · 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, wife, Abimelech king), 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:522
# text = And Abraham said of Sarah his wife: 'She is my sister.' And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Abraham	Abraham	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	Sarah	Sarah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
8	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	_
10	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
11	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
15	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	13	punct	_	_
16	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	compound	_	_
18	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Gerar	Gerar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
21	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
25	Sarah	Sarah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: pos
- 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 | Abraham |  |  |  |  | of Sarah | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is a** | present | wife | my sister |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **send** | past | Abimelech king of Gerar |  |  |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **take** | past | Abimelech king of Gerar *not said here* |  | Sarah |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument sarah=Destination |

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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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וַיֹּ֧אמֶר אַבְרָהָ֛ם אֶל־שָׂרָ֥ה אִשְׁתּ֖וֹ אֲחֹ֣תִי הִ֑וא וַיִּשְׁלַ֗ח אֲבִימֶ֙לֶךְ֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ גְּרָ֔ר וַיִּקַּ֖ח אֶת־שָׂרָֽה׃

[Genesis 20:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.20.2/)

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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:522` 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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- ↑ back to [Genesis 20:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.20.2/)