---
title: Ecclesiastes 10:3 (JPS 1917) — Yea also, when a fool walketh by the way, his understanding faileth… · tree and pragmatics
description: Yea also, when a fool walketh by the way, his understanding faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool. Who acts: fool, understanding. Ecclesiastes 10:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 10:3 · JPS 1917

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Yea also, when a fool walketh by the way, his understanding faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.

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**Who acts:** fool, understanding · **What happens:** walk, fail, say, be, understand · **To what, where:** fool, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 10:3 · 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 (fool, understanding), 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:190
# text = Yea also, when a fool walketh by the way, his understanding faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.
1	Yea	yea	INTJ	UH	_	14	discourse	_	_
2	also	also	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	walketh	walk	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	understanding	understanding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	faileth	fail	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	saith	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	ccomp	_	_
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **walk** | present | a fool |  |  |  |  | by the way | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by way=Trajectory |
| 2 | **fail** | present | fool's understanding | fool |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Eventuality |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | understanding |  | every one |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to one=Recipient |
| 4 | **is a** | present | understanding | a fool |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **understand** |  | fool |  |  |  |  |  | nom understanding «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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 -->
וְגַם־בַּדֶּ֛רֶךְ כְּשֶׁסָּכָ֥להֹלֵ֖ךְ לִבּ֣וֹ חָסֵ֑ר וְאָמַ֥ר לַכֹּ֖ל סָכָ֥ל הֽוּא׃

[Ecclesiastes 10:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.10.3/)

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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:190` 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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