---
title: Ecclesiastes 1:8 (JPS 1917) — All things toil to weariness; man cannot utter it, the eye is not sa… · tree and pragmatics
description: All things toil to weariness; man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Who acts: things, man, ear. Ecclesiastes 1:8 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 1:8 · JPS 1917

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All things toil to weariness; man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

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**Who acts:** things, man, ear · **What happens:** toil, not utter, not satisfy, see, fill · **To what, where:** weariness, eye

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This is Ecclesiastes 1:8 · 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 (things, man, ear), 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:7
# text = All things toil to weariness; man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	toil	toil	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	weariness	weariness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	utter	utter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	eye	eye	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	satisfied	satisfy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	parataxis	_	_
18	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	advcl	_	_
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	nor	nor	CCONJ	CC	Polarity=Neg	24	cc	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	ear	ear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	_
24	filled	fill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	conj	_	_
25	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	hearing	hearing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
27	.	.	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 | **toil** | present | all things |  |  | weariness |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to weariness=Destination |
| 2 | **not** **utter** *speech: other* | can | man | weariness |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **satisfy** | present · passive |  | the eye |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 4 | **see** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **fill** | participle | the ear |  |  |  |  | with hearing | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with hearing=Instrument |

<!-- .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 -->
כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֣ים יְגֵעִ֔ים לֹא־יוּכַ֥ל אִ֖ישׁ לְדַבֵּ֑ר לֹא־תִשְׂבַּ֥ע עַ֙יִן֙ לִרְא֔וֹת וְלֹא־תִמָּלֵ֥א אֹ֖זֶן מִשְּׁמֹֽעַ׃

[Ecclesiastes 1:8: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.1.8/)

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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:7` 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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