---
title: Ecclesiastes 10:12 (JPS 1917) — The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool… · tree and pragmatics
description: The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. Who acts: words, lips. Ecclesiastes 10:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 10:12 · JPS 1917

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The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.

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**Who acts:** words, lips · **What happens:** be, swallow up, word · **To what, where:** serpent, mouth

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This is Ecclesiastes 10:12 · 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, lips), 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:199
# text = The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	_
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
9	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	gracious	gracious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	swallow	swallow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
20	up	up	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	19	obj	_	_
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: evaluate
- 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 | **is** | present | the words of a wise man's mouth |  |  |  |  | gracious *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **swallow up** | future | the lips of a fool | serpent |  |  |  |  | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Patient |
| 3 | **word** |  |  | a wise man's mouth |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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}

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דִּבְרֵ֥י פִי־חָכָ֖ם חֵ֑ן וְשִׂפְת֥וֹת כְּסִ֖יל תְּבַלְּעֶֽנּוּ׃

[Ecclesiastes 10:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.10.12/)

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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:199` 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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