---
title: Genesis 20:8 (JPS 1917) — And Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears; and the men were sore afraid. Who acts: Abimelech, men. Genesis 20:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 20:8 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears; and the men were sore afraid.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Abimelech, men · **What happens:** rise, call, tell, be · **To what, where:** servants, things, ears · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 20:8 · 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 (Abimelech, men), 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:530
# text = And Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears; and the men were sore afraid.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Abimelech	Abimelech	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	rose	rise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	13	det:predet	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
17	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	19	det:predet	_	_
18	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	ears	ear	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	sore	sore	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	_
29	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	conj	_	_
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rise** | past | Abimelech |  |  |  | morning | early *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **call** | past | Abimelech *not said here* | Abimelech's servants |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent servant=Recipient |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Abimelech *not said here* | all things |  | things's ears |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent thing=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | the men |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
וַיַּשְׁכֵּ֨ם אֲבִימֶ֜לֶךְ בַּבֹּ֗קֶר וַיִּקְרָא֙ לְכָל־עֲבָדָ֔יו וַיְדַבֵּ֛ר אֶת־כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה בְּאָזְנֵיהֶ֑ם וַיִּֽירְא֥וּ הָאֲנָשִׁ֖ים מְאֹֽד׃

[Genesis 20:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.20.8/)

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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:530` 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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