---
title: Ecclesiastes 2:19 (JPS 1917) — And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool? yet will he… · tree and pragmatics
description: And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool? yet will he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shown myself wise under the sun. Who acts: remembrance, I. Ecclesiastes 2:19 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 2:19 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

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And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool? yet will he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shown myself wise under the sun.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** remembrance, I · **What happens:** know, be, have, labour, show · **To what, where:** wise man, rule, labour, myself · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 2:19 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2 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 (remembrance, I), 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:38
# text = And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool? yet will he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shown myself wise under the sun.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	knoweth	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
6	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
7	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	cop	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
11	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	_
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
15	yet	yet	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
19	rule	rule	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
20	over	over	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	23	det:predet	_	_
22	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
24	wherein	wherein	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	27	advmod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
26	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	laboured	labour	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	acl:relcl	_	_
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	wherein	wherein	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	33	advmod	_	_
31	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
32	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	shown	show	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	conj	_	_
34	myself	myself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	33	obj	_	_
35	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	xcomp	_	_
36	under	under	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	sun.	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: yes/no question
- act: ask
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: changed form=q, act=ask, indirect=0

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | future | remembrance | a wise man or a fool |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **have** | future | remembrance | rule |  | my labour |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rule=Patient |
| 4 | **labour** | present · perfect | I |  |  |  |  | wherein *property* | vn work-73.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **show** | present · perfect | I | myself |  |  |  | wherein, wise *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent myself=Recipient |

<!-- .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 -->
וּמִ֣י יוֹדֵ֗עַ הֶֽחָכָ֤ם יִהְיֶה֙ א֣וֹ סָכָ֔ל וְיִשְׁלַט֙ בְּכָל־עֲמָלִ֔י שֶֽׁעָמַ֥לְתִּי וְשֶׁחָכַ֖מְתִּי תַּ֣חַת הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ גַּם־זֶ֖ה הָֽבֶל׃

[Ecclesiastes 2:19: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.19/)

<!-- .note -->
This verse in JPS 1917:

<!-- .ens -->
1. **And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool? yet will he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shown myself wise under the sun.**
2. [This also is vanity.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.39/)

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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:38` 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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<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 2:18 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.37/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 2:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.39/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 2:19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.2.19/)