---
title: Genesis 21:7 (JPS 1917) — And she said: 'Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should g… · tree and pragmatics
description: And she said: 'Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should give children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old age.' Who acts: Isaac, Sarah, I. Genesis 21:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 21:7 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And she said: 'Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should give children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old age.'

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**Who acts:** Isaac, Sarah, I · **What happens:** say, give, suck, bear · **To what, where:** children, son, Sarah, old age · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 21:7 · 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 (Isaac, Sarah, I), 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:547
# text = And she said: 'Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should give children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old age.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|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	:	_	9	punct	_	_
5	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
6	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	9	nsubj	_	_
7	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
10	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Abraham	Abraham	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	Sarah	Sarah	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
17	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	_
18	suck	suck	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
20	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	borne	bear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
24	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	age	age	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
32	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: express
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed form=q, act=express, indirect=1

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Isaac |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | would · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | unto Abraham | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **give** | should | Sarah | children |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **suck** | infinitive | Sarah *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **bear** | present · perfect | I | a son | Sarah |  | in Sarah's old age |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary son=Patient |

<!-- .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 -->
וַתֹּ֗אמֶר מִ֤י מִלֵּל֙ לְאַבְרָהָ֔ם הֵינִ֥יקָה בָנִ֖ים שָׂרָ֑ה כִּֽי־יָלַ֥דְתִּי בֵ֖ן לִזְקֻנָֽיו׃

[Genesis 21:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.21.7/)

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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:547` 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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- ← previous: [Genesis 21:6 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.546/)
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