---
title: Ecclesiastes 2:12 (JPS 1917) — And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly; for wha… · tree and pragmatics
description: And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly; for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done. Who acts: I, man. Ecclesiastes 2:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 2:12 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly; for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, man · **What happens:** turn, behold, do, come · **To what, where:** myself, wisdom

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This is Ecclesiastes 2:12 · 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 (I, man), 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:29
# text = And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly; for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	3	obj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	behold	behold	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
7	wisdom	wisdom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	madness	madness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	for	for	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
15	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	19	obj	_	_
16	can	can	AUX	MD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
19	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
20	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	cometh	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	after	after	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
26	even	even	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	parataxis	_	_
28	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
29	hath	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
30	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	32	aux:pass	_	_
31	already	already	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl:relcl	_	_
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## 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 | **turn** | past | I | myself |  |  |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent myself=Theme |
| 2 | **behold** | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | wisdom and madness and folly |  |  |  |  | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer wisdom=Stimulus |
| 3 | **do** | can | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 4 | **come** | present | the man |  |  |  | after the king |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **do** | present · perfect · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 -->
וּפָנִ֤יתִֽי אֲנִי֙ לִרְא֣וֹת חָכְמָ֔ה וְהוֹלֵל֖וֹת וְסִכְל֑וּת כִּ֣י ׀ מֶ֣ה הָאָדָ֗ם שֶׁיָּבוֹא֙ אַחֲרֵ֣י הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ אֵ֥ת אֲשֶׁר־כְּבָ֖ר עָשֽׂוּהוּ׃

[Ecclesiastes 2:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.12/)

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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:29` 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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- ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 2:11 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.28/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 2:13 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.30/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 2:12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.12/)