Ecclesiastes 4:17 · JPS 1917
Guard thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be ready to hearken: it is better than when fools give sacrifices; for they know not that they do evil.
Who acts: you, thou, foot, fools, sacrifices · What happens: guard, go, be, hearken, give, not know · To what, where: foot, house, sacrifices, evil · Speech: someone speaks here
This is Ecclesiastes 4:17 · 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 (you, thou, foot, fools), 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 | Guard | guard | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | thy | thy | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs Style=Arch | 3 foot | nmod:poss |
| 3 | foot | foot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Guard | obj |
| 4 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 6 goest | mark |
| 5 | thou | thou | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=2 PronType=Prs Style=Arch | 6 goest | nsubj |
| 6 | goest | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Style=Arch Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 Guard | advcl |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 9 house | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 house | det |
| 9 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 goest | obl |
| 10 | of | of | ADP | _ | 11 God | case |
| 11 | God | God | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 house | nmod |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 ready | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 ready | cc |
| 14 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 15 ready | cop |
| 15 | ready | ready | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 1 Guard | conj |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 hearken | mark |
| 17 | hearken | hearken | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 ready | xcomp |
| 18 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 21 better | punct |
| 19 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 better | nsubj |
| 20 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 21 better | cop |
| 21 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 1 Guard | parataxis |
| 22 | than | than | SCONJ | _ | 25 give | mark |
| 23 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 25 give | mark |
| 24 | fools | fool | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 give | nsubj |
| 25 | give | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 21 better | advcl |
| 26 | sacrifices | sacrifice | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 give | obj |
| 27 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 30 know | punct |
| 28 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 30 know | mark |
| 29 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 know | nsubj |
| 30 | know | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 Guard | advcl |
| 31 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 30 know | advmod |
| 32 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 34 do | mark |
| 33 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 do | nsubj |
| 34 | do | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 30 know | ccomp |
| 35 | evil | evil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 do | obj |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Guard | punct |
Pragmatics
- form
- command
- act
- request
- voice
- narrator
- polarity
- neg
- teacher
- kept the draft
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | guard | imperative | you not said here | thy foot | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Beneficiary | ||||
| 2 | go | present | thou | the house of God | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to house=Initial_Location | ||||
| 3 | is | infinitive | you not said here | ready property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | hearken | to-infinitive | you not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | is | present | foot | good property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | give | present | fools | sacrifices | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sacrifice=Theme | ||||
| 7 | not know | present | sacrifices = sacrifice | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 8 | do | present | sacrifices = sacrifice | evil | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evil=Eventuality |
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
שְׁמֹ֣ר רַגְלְךָ֗ כַּאֲשֶׁ֤ר תֵּלֵךְ֙ אֶל־בֵּ֣ית הָאֱלֹהִ֔ים וְקָר֣וֹב לִשְׁמֹ֔עַ מִתֵּ֥ת הַכְּסִילִ֖ים זָ֑בַח כִּֽי־אֵינָ֥ם יוֹדְעִ֖ים לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת רָֽע׃
Ecclesiastes 4:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →
Source. The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence jps:ECC:91 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/ketuvim/jps/ECC.91/