---
title: Ecclesiastes 8:4 (JPS 1917) — Forasmuch as the king's word hath power; and who may say unto him: '… · tree and pragmatics
description: Forasmuch as the king's word hath power; and who may say unto him: 'What doest thou?' Who acts: word, thou, king. Ecclesiastes 8:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 8:4 · JPS 1917

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Forasmuch as the king's word hath power; and who may say unto him: 'What doest thou?'

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**Who acts:** word, thou, king · **What happens:** have, say, do, word · **To what, where:** power · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 8:4 · 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 (word, thou, king), 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:156
# text = Forasmuch as the king's word hath power; and who may say unto him: 'What doest thou?'
1	Forasmuch	forasmuch	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	1	fixed	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	_
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	hath	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
8	power	power	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	13	nsubj	_	_
12	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	unto	unto	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	_
18	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
19	doest	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	ccomp	_	_
20	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	19	nsubj	_	_
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
22	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: evaluate
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=evaluate

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present | the king's word | power |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Patient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | may |  |  |  |  |  | unto king | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** | present | thou |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **word** |  | the king |  |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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בַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר דְּבַר־מֶ֖לֶךְ שִׁלְט֑וֹן וּמִ֥י יֹֽאמַר־ל֖וֹ מַֽה־תַּעֲשֶֽׂה׃

[Ecclesiastes 8:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.8.4/)

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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:156` 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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- ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 8:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.155/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 8:5 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.157/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 8:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.8.4/)