---
title: Ecclesiastes 4:4 (JPS 1917) — Again, I considered all labour and all excelling in work, that it is… · tree and pragmatics
description: Again, I considered all labour and all excelling in work, that it is a man's rivalry with his neighbour. Who acts: I, all, work. Ecclesiastes 4:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.76/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Ecclesiastes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/) / [chapter 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC/4/) / [4:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.4/) / JPS 1

# Ecclesiastes 4:4 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 2

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Again, I considered all labour and all excelling in work, that it is a man's rivalry with his neighbour.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** I, all, work · **What happens:** consider, excel, be · **To what, where:** labour, work, rivalry

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Ecclesiastes 4:4 · 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 (I, all, work), 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:76
# text = Again, I considered all labour and all excelling in work, that it is a man's rivalry with his neighbour.
1	Again	again	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	considered	consider	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	all	all	PRON	DT	PronType=Tot	9	nsubj	_	_
9	excelling	excel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	work	work	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
16	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	's	's	PART	POS	_	17	case	_	_
19	rivalry	rivalry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	ccomp	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	neighbour	neighbour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **consider** | past | I | all labour |  |  | again |  | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent labour=Attribute |
| 2 | **excel** | gerund | all |  |  | work |  |  | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V PP.eventuality S\_ING»: agent=Agent in work=Eventuality |
| 3 | **is a** | present | work | a man's rivalry |  |  |  | with man's neighbour | tree rules |

<!-- .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 -->
וְרָאִ֨יתִֽי אֲנִ֜י אֶת־כָּל־עָמָ֗ל וְאֵת֙ כָּל־כִּשְׁר֣וֹן הַֽמַּעֲשֶׂ֔ה כִּ֛י הִ֥יא קִנְאַת־אִ֖ישׁ מֵרֵעֵ֑הוּ גַּם־זֶ֥ה הֶ֖בֶל וּרְע֥וּת רֽוּחַ׃

[Ecclesiastes 4:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.4/)

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

<!-- .ens -->
1. **Again, I considered all labour and all excelling in work, that it is a man's rivalry with his neighbour.**
2. [This also is vanity and a striving after wind.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.77/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:ECC:76` 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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Ecclesiastes 4:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.75/)
- next →: [Ecclesiastes 4:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/ECC.77/)
- ↑ back to [Ecclesiastes 4:4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.4/)