---
title: Ecclesiastes 10:1 (JPS 1917) — Dead flies make the ointment of the perfumer fetid and putrid; so do… · tree and pragmatics
description: Dead flies make the ointment of the perfumer fetid and putrid; so doth a little folly outweigh wisdom and honour. Who acts: Dead flies, little folly. Ecclesiastes 10:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 10:1 · JPS 1917

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Dead flies make the ointment of the perfumer fetid and putrid; so doth a little folly outweigh wisdom and honour.

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**Who acts:** Dead flies, little folly · **What happens:** make, outweigh · **To what, where:** ointment, wisdom

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This is Ecclesiastes 10:1 · 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 (Dead flies, little folly), 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:188
# text = Dead flies make the ointment of the perfumer fetid and putrid; so doth a little folly outweigh wisdom and honour.
1	Dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
2	flies	fly	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	make	make	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	ointment	ointment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	perfumer	perfumer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	fetid	fetid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	xcomp	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	putrid	putrid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	18	advmod	_	_
14	doth	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	outweigh	outweigh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
19	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	honour	honour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	conj	_	_
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present | Dead flies | the ointment  the perfumer |  |  |  | fetid *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ointment=Product |
| 2 | **outweigh** | present · do-support | a little folly | wisdom and honour |  |  |  |  | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot wisdom=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 -->
זְב֣וּבֵי מָ֔וֶת יַבְאִ֥ישׁ יַבִּ֖יעַ שֶׁ֣מֶן רוֹקֵ֑חַ יָקָ֛ר מֵחָכְמָ֥ה מִכָּב֖וֹד סִכְל֥וּת מְעָֽט׃

[Ecclesiastes 10:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.10.1/)

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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:188` 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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