---
title: Ecclesiastes 1:17 (JPS 1917) — And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly… · tree and pragmatics
description: And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly — I perceived that this also was a striving after wind. Who acts: I, this. Ecclesiastes 1:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 1:17 · JPS 1917

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And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly — I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.

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**Who acts:** I, this · **What happens:** apply, know, perceive, be · **To what, where:** heart, wisdom, madness, striving

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This is Ecclesiastes 1:17 · 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 (I, this), 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:16
# text = And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly — I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	applied	apply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
8	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
13	madness	madness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
16	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	perceived	perceive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
19	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
20	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	24	nsubj	_	_
21	also	also	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	cop	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	striving	strive	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	ccomp	_	_
25	after	after	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	_
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **apply** | past | I | my heart |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heart=Theme |
| 2 | **know** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | wisdom |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer wisdom=Stimulus |
| 3 | **know** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | madness and folly |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer madness=Stimulus |
| 4 | **perceive** | past | I |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **is a** | past | this | a striving |  |  | after wind |  | tree rules |

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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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וָאֶתְּנָ֤ה לִבִּי֙ לָדַ֣עַת חָכְמָ֔ה וְדַ֥עַת הוֹלֵל֖וֹת וְשִׂכְל֑וּת יָדַ֕עְתִּי שֶׁגַּם־זֶ֥ה ה֖וּא רַעְי֥וֹן רֽוּחַ׃

[Ecclesiastes 1:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.1.17/)

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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:16` 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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