---
title: Ecclesiastes 9:5 (JPS 1917) — For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any t… · tree and pragmatics
description: For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Who acts: living, dead. Ecclesiastes 9:5 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 9:5 · JPS 1917

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For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** living, dead · **What happens:** know, die, not know, forget · **To what, where:** thing, memory · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Ecclesiastes 9:5 · 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 (living, dead), 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:174
# text = For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	living	living	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	nsubj	_	_
4	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
6	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	dead	dead	NOUN	NN	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	know	know	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
15	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	16	det	_	_
16	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	neither	neither	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	19	cc	_	_
19	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
21	any	any	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	19	advmod	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	reward	reward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
25	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	32	punct	_	_
26	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	memory	memory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	_
31	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	parataxis	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present | the living |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **die** | shall | living |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 3 | **not** **know** | present | the dead | any thing |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer thing=Stimulus |
| 4 | **forget** | present · passive |  | the memory of living |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
כִּ֧י הַֽחַיִּ֛ים יוֹדְעִ֖ים שֶׁיָּמֻ֑תוּ וְהַמֵּתִ֞ים אֵינָ֧ם יוֹדְעִ֣ים מְא֗וּמָה וְאֵֽין־ע֤וֹד לָהֶם֙ שָׂכָ֔ר כִּ֥י נִשְׁכַּ֖ח זִכְרָֽם׃

[Ecclesiastes 9:5: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.9.5/)

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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:174` 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 9:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.173/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 9:6 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.175/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 9:5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.9.5/)