---
title: Leviticus 20:20 (JPS 1917) — And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife — he hath uncovered his… · tree and pragmatics
description: And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife — he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness — they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. Who acts: man, father. Leviticus 20:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Leviticus 20:20 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife — he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness — they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, father · **What happens:** lie, uncover, bear, die · **To what, where:** nakedness, sin

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Leviticus 20:20 · 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 (man, father), 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:599
# text = And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife — he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness — they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
2	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	lie	lie	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	's	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
12	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	uncovered	uncover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	parataxis	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	uncle	uncle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	nakedness	nakedness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
20	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
24	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	sin	sin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
27	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	parataxis	_	_
30	childless	childless	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	xcomp	_	_
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	23	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=assert

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lie** *a condition, not said to happen* | shall | a man |  |  |  |  | with man's uncle's wife | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **uncover** | present · perfect | man | man's uncle's nakedness |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **bear** | shall | father | father's sin |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sin=Patient |
| 4 | **die** | shall | father |  |  |  |  | childless *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

<!-- .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 -->
וְאִ֗ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֤ר יִשְׁכַּב֙ אֶת־דֹּ֣דָת֔וֹ עֶרְוַ֥ת דֹּד֖וֹ גִּלָּ֑ה חֶטְאָ֥ם יִשָּׂ֖אוּ עֲרִירִ֥ים יָמֻֽתוּ׃

[Leviticus 20:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/LEV.20.20/)

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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:599` 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: [Leviticus 20:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/LEV.598/)
- next →: [Leviticus 20:21 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/LEV.600/)
- ↑ back to [Leviticus 20:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/LEV.20.20/)