---
title: Ecclesiastes 9:17 (JPS 1917) — The words of the wise spoken in quiet are more acceptable than the c… · tree and pragmatics
description: The words of the wise spoken in quiet are more acceptable than the cry of a ruler among fools. Who acts: words, ruler. Ecclesiastes 9:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 9:17 · JPS 1917

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The words of the wise spoken in quiet are more acceptable than the cry of a ruler among fools.

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**Who acts:** words, ruler · **What happens:** speak, be, word, cry · **To what, where:** words, quiet, wise · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 9:17 · 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 (words, ruler), 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:186
# text = The words of the wise spoken in quiet are more acceptable than the cry of a ruler among fools.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	wise	wise	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	quiet	quiet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
9	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
10	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	11	advmod	_	_
11	acceptable	acceptable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
12	than	than	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	ruler	ruler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	among	among	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	fools	fool	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	17	nmod	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: evaluate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: changed polarity=pos

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **speak** *speech: other* | participle |  | the words of the wise *not said here* |  | quiet |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** | present | the words of the wise |  |  |  |  | than the cry of a ruler among fools; acceptable *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **word** |  |  | the wise |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 4 | **cry** |  | a ruler among fools |  |  |  |  |  | nom cry «communication intransitive»: of=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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דִּבְרֵ֣י חֲכָמִ֔ים בְּנַ֖חַת נִשְׁמָעִ֑ים מִזַּעֲקַ֥ת מוֹשֵׁ֖ל בַּכְּסִילִֽים׃

[Ecclesiastes 9:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.9.17/)

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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:186` 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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