---
title: Leviticus 19:31 (JPS 1917) — Turn ye not unto the ghosts, nor unto familiar spirits; seek them no… · tree and pragmatics
description: Turn ye not unto the ghosts, nor unto familiar spirits; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. Who acts: ye, spirits, I. Leviticus 19:31 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Leviticus 19:31 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Turn ye not unto the ghosts, nor unto familiar spirits; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** ye, spirits, I · **What happens:** not turn, not seek out, defile, be · **To what, where:** spirits, LORD

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Leviticus 19:31 · 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 (ye, spirits, 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:LEV:573
# text = Turn ye not unto the ghosts, nor unto familiar spirits; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
1	Turn	turn	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	ye	ye	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	1	nsubj	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	1	advmod	_	_
4	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ghosts	ghost	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
8	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	11	cc	_	_
9	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	familiar	familiar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	spirits	spirit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	conj	_	_
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
13	seek	seek	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	1	parataxis	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	defiled	defile	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	advcl	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obl:agent	_	_
23	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	27	punct	_	_
24	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	parataxis	_	_
28	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	29	nmod:poss	_	_
29	God	God	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	appos	_	_
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: command
- act: request
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **turn** | infinitive | ye |  |  |  |  | unto the ghosts nor familiar spirits | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **seek out** | infinitive |  | spirits *= spirit* |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 3 | **defile** | to-infinitive · passive | spirits *= spirit* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is a** | present | I | the LORD |  |  |  |  | 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 -->
אַל־תִּפְנ֤וּ אֶל־הָאֹבֹת֙ וְאֶל־הַיִּדְּעֹנִ֔ים אַל־תְּבַקְשׁ֖וּ לְטָמְאָ֣ה בָהֶ֑ם אֲנִ֖י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

[Leviticus 19:31: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/LEV.19.31/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:LEV:573` 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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