---
title: Genesis 29:4 (JPS 1917) — And Jacob said unto them: 'My brethren, whence are ye?' And they sai… · tree and pragmatics
description: And Jacob said unto them: 'My brethren, whence are ye?' And they said: 'Of Haran are we.' Who acts: Jacob, ye, flocks, we. Genesis 29:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Genesis 29:4 · JPS 1917

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And Jacob said unto them: 'My brethren, whence are ye?' And they said: 'Of Haran are we.'

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**Who acts:** Jacob, ye, flocks, we · **What happens:** say, be · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Genesis 29:4 · 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 (Jacob, ye, flocks, we), 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:854
# text = And Jacob said unto them: 'My brethren, whence are ye?' And they said: 'Of Haran are we.'
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Jacob	Jacob	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
7	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	_
8	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	brethren	brother	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	vocative	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
11	whence	whence	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	ccomp	_	_
12	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
13	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	11	nsubj	_	_
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
15	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
16	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
20	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	_
21	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	Haran	Haran	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	_
23	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
26	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- 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 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Jacob |  |  |  |  | unto flocks *= flock* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | ye |  |  |  |  | My brethren *vocative*; whence *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | flocks *= flock* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | present | we |  |  |  |  | of Haran | 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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וַיֹּ֤אמֶר לָהֶם֙ יַעֲקֹ֔ב אַחַ֖י מֵאַ֣יִן אַתֶּ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ מֵחָרָ֖ן אֲנָֽחְנוּ׃

[Genesis 29:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.29.4/)

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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:854` 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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