--- title: Ecclesiastes 10:20 (JPS 1917) — Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich i… · tree and pragmatics description: Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. Who acts: you, bird, that, thy. Ecclesiastes 10:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clau --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.207/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Ecclesiastes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/) / [chapter 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/10/) / [10:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.10.20/) / JPS 1 # Ecclesiastes 10:20 · JPS 1917 Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. **Who acts:** you, bird, that, thy · **What happens:** not curse, carry, have, tell, think · **To what, where:** king, thought, rich, bedchamber, voice, wings · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is Ecclesiastes 10:20 · 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 (you, bird, that, thy), 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:207 # text = Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. 1 Curse curse VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 0 root _ _ 2 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 1 advmod _ _ 3 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 4 det _ _ 4 king king NOUN NN Number=Sing 1 obj _ _ 5 , , PUNCT , _ 6 punct _ _ 6 no no INTJ UH Polarity=Neg 1 discourse _ _ 7 , , PUNCT , _ 11 punct _ _ 8 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 11 advmod _ _ 9 in in ADP IN _ 11 case _ _ 10 thy thy PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch 11 nmod:poss _ _ 11 thought thought NOUN NN Number=Sing 1 obl _ _ 12 , , PUNCT , _ 14 punct _ _ 13 and and CCONJ CC _ 14 cc _ _ 14 curse curse VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 1 conj _ _ 15 not not PART RB Polarity=Neg 14 advmod _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 17 det _ _ 17 rich rich NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obj _ _ 18 in in ADP IN _ 20 case _ _ 19 thy thy PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch 20 nmod:poss _ _ 20 bedchamber bedchamber NOUN NN Number=Sing 14 obl _ _ 21 ; ; PUNCT : _ 29 punct _ _ 22 for for SCONJ IN _ 29 mark _ _ 23 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 24 det _ _ 24 bird bird NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 nsubj _ _ 25 of of ADP IN _ 27 case _ _ 26 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 27 det _ _ 27 air air NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 nmod _ _ 28 shall shall AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 29 aux _ _ 29 carry carry VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 1 parataxis _ _ 30 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 31 det _ _ 31 voice voice NOUN NN Number=Sing 29 obj _ _ 32 , , PUNCT , _ 39 punct _ _ 33 and and CCONJ CC _ 39 cc _ _ 34 that that PRON DT Number=Sing|PronType=Dem 39 nsubj _ _ 35 which which PRON WDT PronType=Rel 36 nsubj _ _ 36 hath have VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 34 acl:relcl _ _ 37 wings wing NOUN NNS Number=Plur 36 obj _ _ 38 shall shall AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 39 aux _ _ 39 tell tell VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 29 conj _ _ 40 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 41 det _ _ 41 matter matter NOUN NN Number=Sing 39 obj _ _ 42 . . PUNCT . _ 1 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} - form: command - act: request - voice: narrator - polarity: pos - teacher: changed act=request | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **not** **curse** | imperative | you *not said here* | the king | | thy thought | | | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Theme | | 2 | **not** **curse** | infinitive | you *not said here* | the rich | | thy bedchamber | | | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rich=Theme | | 3 | **carry** | shall | a bird of the air | the voice | | | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent voice=Theme | | 4 | **have** | present | | wings | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wing=Patient | | 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | shall | that | the matter | | | | | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent matter=Recipient | | 6 | **think** | | thy | | | | | | nom thought «cognition transitive»: poss=agent | 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} גַּ֣ם בְּמַדָּֽעֲךָ֗ מֶ֚לֶךְ אַל־תְּקַלֵּ֔ל וּבְחַדְרֵי֙ מִשְׁכָּ֣בְךָ֔ אַל־תְּקַלֵּ֖ל עָשִׁ֑יר כִּ֣י ע֤וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ יוֹלִ֣יךְ אֶת־הַקּ֔וֹל וּבַ֥עַל כְּנָפַ֖יִם יַגֵּ֥יד דָּבָֽר׃ [Ecclesiastes 10:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.10.20/) **Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ECC:207` 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. - ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 10:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.206/) - next →: [Ecclesiastes 11:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.208/) - ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 10:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.10.20/)