---
title: Ecclesiastes 2:11 (JPS 1917) — Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the… · tree and pragmatics
description: Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun. Who acts: I, hands, all, profit. Ecclesiastes 2:11 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmat
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.28/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/2/) / [2:11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.11/) / JPS 1

# Ecclesiastes 2:11 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, hands, all, profit · **What happens:** look, wrought, labour, do, be · **To what, where:** works, labour, vanity

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Ecclesiastes 2:11 · 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 (I, hands, all, profit), 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:28
# text = Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	7	det:predet	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	works	work	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
8	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	obj	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	wrought	wrought	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	acl:relcl	_	_
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
18	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	obj	_	_
19	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
20	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
21	laboured	labour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	acl:relcl	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	xcomp	_	_
24	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	31	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
27	behold	behold	INTJ	UH	_	31	discourse	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
29	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	31	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	cop	_	_
31	vanity	vanity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	conj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	striving	strive	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	_
35	after	after	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
36	wind	wind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	nmod	_	_
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	40	cc	_	_
39	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	40	expl	_	_
40	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
41	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	42	det	_	_
42	profit	profit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	nsubj	_	_
43	under	under	ADP	IN	_	45	case	_	_
44	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	45	det	_	_
45	sun.	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	nmod	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | I |  |  |  | then | on all works and the labour | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on work=Theme |
| 2 | **wrought** | past · perfect | my hands | all works and the labour |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **labour** | past · perfect | I | the labour |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **do** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is a** | past | all | vanity and a striving after wind |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** | past | no profit under the sun. |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 -->
וּפָנִ֣יתִֽי אֲנִ֗י בְּכָל־מַעֲשַׂי֙ שֶֽׁעָשׂ֣וּ יָדַ֔י וּבֶֽעָמָ֖ל שֶׁעָמַ֣לְתִּי לַעֲשׂ֑וֹת וְהִנֵּ֨ה הַכֹּ֥ל הֶ֙בֶל֙ וּרְע֣וּת ר֔וּחַ וְאֵ֥ין יִתְר֖וֹן תַּ֥חַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃

[Ecclesiastes 2:11: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.11/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ECC:28` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 2:10 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.27/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 2:12 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.29/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 2:11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.11/)