---
title: Ecclesiastes 3:21 (JPS 1917) — Who knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spiri… · tree and pragmatics
description: Who knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth downward to the earth? Who acts: spirit. Ecclesiastes 3:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 3:21 · JPS 1917

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Who knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth downward to the earth?

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**Who acts:** spirit · **What happens:** know, go · **To what, where:** spirit, earth · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Ecclesiastes 3:21 · 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 (spirit), 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:71
# text = Who knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth downward to the earth?
1	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	2	nsubj	_	_
2	knoweth	know	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	goeth	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
10	upward	upward	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	conj	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	beast	beast	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nmod	_	_
18	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	goeth	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
21	downward	downward	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **know** | present |  | the spirit of man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | present | spirit |  |  |  |  | upward *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | present | spirit |  |  | the earth |  | downward *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to earth=Initial\_Location |

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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}

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מִ֣י יוֹדֵ֗עַ ר֚וּחַ בְּנֵ֣י הָאָדָ֔ם הָעֹלָ֥ה הִ֖יא לְמָ֑עְלָה וְר֙וּחַ֙ הַבְּהֵמָ֔ה הַיֹּרֶ֥דֶת הִ֖יא לְמַ֥טָּה לָאָֽרֶץ׃

[Ecclesiastes 3:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.3.21/)

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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:71` 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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