---
title: Ecclesiastes 7:3 (JPS 1917) — Vexation is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countena… · tree and pragmatics
description: Vexation is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart may be gladdened. Who acts: Vexation, sadness. Ecclesiastes 7:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 7:3 · JPS 1917

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Vexation is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart may be gladdened.

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**Who acts:** Vexation, sadness · **What happens:** be, gladden · **To what, where:** heart

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This is Ecclesiastes 7:3 · 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 (Vexation, sadness), 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:125
# text = Vexation is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart may be gladdened.
1	Vexation	vexation	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	laughter	laughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
7	for	for	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	sadness	sadness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	gladdened	gladden	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- hedged: yes
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Vexation |  |  |  |  | than laughter; good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **gladden** | may · passive | the sadness of the countenance | the heart |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer |

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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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ט֥וֹב כַּ֖עַס מִשְּׂחֹ֑ק כִּֽי־בְרֹ֥עַ פָּנִ֖ים יִ֥יטַב לֵֽב׃

[Ecclesiastes 7:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.7.3/)

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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:125` 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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