---
title: Ecclesiastes 1:15 (JPS 1917) — That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wan… · tree and pragmatics
description: That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. Ecclesiastes 1:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 1:15 · JPS 1917

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That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

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**What happens:** be, not make, not number · **To what, where:** That

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This is Ecclesiastes 1:15 · 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: 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:14
# text = That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
1	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	crooked	crooked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	acl:relcl	_	_
5	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
6	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	straight	straight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	xcomp	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
12	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	15	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	wanting	wanting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	acl:relcl	_	_
16	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	numbered	number	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	8	conj	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | crooked *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **make** | can · passive |  | That |  |  |  | straight *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 3 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | wanting *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **number** | can · passive |  | that |  |  |  |  | vn classify-29.10 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |

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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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
מְעֻוָּ֖ת לֹא־יוּכַ֣ל לִתְקֹ֑ן וְחֶסְר֖וֹן לֹא־יוּכַ֥ל לְהִמָּנֽוֹת׃

[Ecclesiastes 1:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.1.15/)

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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:14` 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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