---
title: Numbers 27:4 (JPS 1917) — Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family… · tree and pragmatics
description: Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he had no son? Who acts: father. Numbers 27:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.985/)

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# Numbers 27:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he had no son?

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** do, have, name · **To what, where:** name, son, father

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This is Numbers 27:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (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:NUM:985
# text = Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he had no son?
1	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
2	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	aux:pass	_	_
9	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	among	among	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	family	family	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: evaluate
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed polarity=neg

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | should · passive |  | the name of our father |  |  |  | among father's family | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
| 2 | **have** | past | father | no son |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient |
| 3 | **name** |  |  | our father |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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לָ֣מָּה יִגָּרַ֤ע שֵׁם־אָבִ֙ינוּ֙ מִתּ֣וֹךְ מִשְׁפַּחְתּ֔וֹ כִּ֛י אֵ֥ין ל֖וֹ בֵּ֑ן תְּנָה־לָּ֣נוּ אֲחֻזָּ֔ה בְּת֖וֹךְ אֲחֵ֥י אָבִֽינוּ׃

[Numbers 27:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/NUM.27.4/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he had no son?**
2. [Give unto us a possession among the brethren of our father.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.986/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:NUM:985` 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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