---
title: Leviticus 21:1 (JPS 1917) — And the LORD said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests the sons of Aar… · tree and pragmatics
description: And the LORD said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them: There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people; Who acts: LORD, none. Leviticus 21:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Leviticus 21:1 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And the LORD said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them: There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people;

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** LORD, none · **What happens:** say, speak, defile · **To what, where:** sons, LORD · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Leviticus 21:1 · 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 (LORD, none), 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:607
# text = And the LORD said unto Moses: Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them: There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people;
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	LORD	LORD	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
8	Speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
9	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	priests	priest	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	iobj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	sons	son	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	iobj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	Aaron	Aaron	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
19	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
21	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
22	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	25	expl	_	_
23	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	25	nsubj	_	_
25	defile	defile	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	ccomp	_	_
26	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	25	obj	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	dead	dead	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
30	among	among	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	_
33	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the LORD |  |  |  |  | unto Moses | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | infinitive |  |  | the sons of Aaron |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | unto sons *= son* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **defile** | shall | none | LORD |  | there |  | for the dead; among LORD's people | 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 -->
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֱמֹ֥ר אֶל־הַכֹּהֲנִ֖ים בְּנֵ֣י אַהֲרֹ֑ן וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ לֹֽא־יִטַּמָּ֖א בְּעַמָּֽיו׃

[Leviticus 21:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/LEV.21.1/)

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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:607` 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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