---
title: Ecclesiastes 10:13 (JPS 1917) — The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end… · tree and pragmatics
description: The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is grievous madness. Who acts: beginning, end, serpent. Ecclesiastes 10:13 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 10:13 · JPS 1917

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The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is grievous madness.

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**Who acts:** beginning, end, serpent · **What happens:** be, begin, word, talk · **To what, where:** foolishness, grievous madness, words, mouth

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This is Ecclesiastes 10:13 · 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 (beginning, end, serpent), 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:200
# text = The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is grievous madness.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	beginning	beginning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	foolishness	foolishness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	end	end	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	talk	talk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	grievous	grievous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	madness	madness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=assert

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the beginning of the words of serpent's mouth | foolishness and grievous madness |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | present | the end of serpent's talk | grievous madness |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **begin** |  |  | the words of serpent's mouth |  |  |  |  | nom beginning «event transitive»: of=patient |
| 4 | **word** |  |  | serpent's mouth |  |  |  |  | nom word «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **talk** |  | serpent |  |  |  |  |  | nom talk «communication intransitive»: poss=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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תְּחִלַּ֥ת דִּבְרֵי־פִ֖יהוּ סִכְל֑וּת וְאַחֲרִ֣ית פִּ֔יהוּ הוֹלֵל֖וּת רָעָֽה׃

[Ecclesiastes 10:13: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.10.13/)

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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:200` 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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