---
title: Ecclesiastes 3:7 (JPS 1917) — A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a tim… · tree and pragmatics
description: A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; Ecclesiastes 3:7 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 3:7 · JPS 1917

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A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

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**What happens:** rend, sew, keep, speak · **To what, where:** silence · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 3:7 · 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: 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:57
# text = A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	PART	TO	_	4	mark	_	_
4	rend	rend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	acl	_	_
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	sew	sew	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	acl	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	acl	_	_
16	silence	silence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	20	acl	_	_
23	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **rend** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **sew** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | silence |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent silence=Theme |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
עֵ֤ת לִקְר֙וֹעַ֙ וְעֵ֣ת לִתְפּ֔וֹר עֵ֥ת לַחֲשׁ֖וֹת וְעֵ֥ת לְדַבֵּֽר׃

[Ecclesiastes 3:7: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.3.7/)

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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:57` 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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