Genesis 38:9 · JPS 1917

And Onan knew that the seed would not be his; and it came to pass when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother.

Who acts: Onan, seed, Judah · What happens: know, not be, come, pass, go in, spill · To what, where: Judah, seed, ground, brother · Speech: someone speaks here

This is Genesis 38:9 · 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 (Onan, seed, Judah), 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	And	and	CCONJ	_	3 knew	cc
2	Onan	Onan	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 knew	nsubj
3	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 his	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 seed	det
6	seed	seed	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 his	nsubj
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 his	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 his	advmod
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 his	cop
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 knew	ccomp
11	;	;	PUNCT	_	14 came	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 came	cc
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 came	nsubj
14	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 knew	conj
15	to	to	PART	_	16 pass	mark
16	pass	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 came	xcomp
17	when	when	SCONJ	_	19 went	mark
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 went	nsubj
19	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 came	advcl
20	in	in	ADV	_	19 went	advmod
21	unto	unto	ADP	_	25 wife	case
22	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 brother	nmod:poss
23	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 wife	nmod:poss
24	's	's	PART	_	23 brother	case
25	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 went	obl
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 spilled	punct
27	that	that	SCONJ	_	29 spilled	mark
28	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 spilled	nsubj
29	spilled	spill	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 came	ccomp
30	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 spilled	obj
31	on	on	ADP	_	33 ground	case
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 ground	det
33	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 spilled	obl
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 give	punct
35	lest	lest	SCONJ	_	38 give	mark
36	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 give	nsubj
37	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	38 give	aux
38	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	29 spilled	advcl
39	seed	seed	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 give	obj
40	to	to	ADP	_	42 brother	case
41	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 brother	nmod:poss
42	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 give	obl
43	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 knew	punct

Pragmatics

form: statement
act: narrate
voice: narrator
polarity: none
teacher: kept the draft

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	know	past	Onan					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	not is a	would	the seed	Judah				tree rules
3	come	past	seed					tree rules
4	pass	to-infinitive	seed not said here					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	go in	past	Judah				unto Judah's brother's wife	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
6	spill	past	Judah	seed		the ground		vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme
7	give	should	Judah	seed	Judah's brother			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent seed=Theme to brother=Recipient

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

וַיֵּ֣דַע אוֹנָ֔ן כִּ֛י לֹּ֥אל֖וֹ יִהְיֶ֣ה הַזָּ֑רַע וְהָיָ֞ה אִם־בָּ֨א אֶל־אֵ֤שֶׁת אָחִיו֙ וְשִׁחֵ֣ת אַ֔רְצָה לְבִלְתִּ֥י נְתָן־זֶ֖רַע לְאָחִֽיו׃

Genesis 38:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Onkelos →

Source. The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence jps:GEN:1225 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1225/