---
title: Ecclesiastes 6:8 (JPS 1917) — For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or the poor man… · tree and pragmatics
description: For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or the poor man that hath understanding, in walking before the living? Who acts: wise, poor man. Ecclesiastes 6:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 6:8 · JPS 1917

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For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or the poor man that hath understanding, in walking before the living?

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**Who acts:** wise, poor man · **What happens:** have, walk · **To what, where:** more, understanding, living

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This is Ecclesiastes 6:8 · 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 (wise, poor man), 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:ECC:118
# text = For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or the poor man that hath understanding, in walking before the living?
1	For	for	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	what	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	3	det	_	_
3	advantage	advantage	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
4	hath	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	wise	wise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
7	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	obj	_	_
8	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
12	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	hath	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	understanding	understanding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
21	walking	walk	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
22	before	before	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	living	living	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	obl	_	_
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | the wise or the poor man | more |  |  |  | for what advantage | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent more=Patient |
| 2 | **have** | present | the poor man | understanding |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent understanding=Patient |
| 3 | **walk** | gerund | the poor man *not said here* |  |  | the living |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before living=Trajectory |

<!-- .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}

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כִּ֛י מַה־יּוֹתֵ֥ר לֶחָכָ֖ם מִֽן־הַכְּסִ֑יל מַה־לֶּעָנִ֣י יוֹדֵ֔עַ לַהֲלֹ֖ךְ נֶ֥גֶד הַחַיִּֽים׃

[Ecclesiastes 6:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.6.8/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ECC:118` 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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