---
title: Ecclesiastes 4:9 (JPS 1917) — Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their l… · tree and pragmatics
description: Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. Who acts: Two, vanity. Ecclesiastes 4:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 4:9 · JPS 1917

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Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.

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**Who acts:** Two, vanity · **What happens:** be, have · **To what, where:** good reward

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This is Ecclesiastes 4:9 · 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 (Two, vanity), 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:82
# text = Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
1	Two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	3	obl	_	_
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
7	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	reward	reward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	labour	labour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | **is** | present | Two |  |  |  |  | than one; good *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | present | vanity | a good reward |  |  |  | for vanity's labour | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reward=Patient |

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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 -->
טוֹבִ֥ים הַשְּׁנַ֖יִם מִן־הָאֶחָ֑ד אֲשֶׁ֧ר יֵשׁ־לָהֶ֛ם שָׂכָ֥ר ט֖וֹב בַּעֲמָלָֽם׃

[Ecclesiastes 4:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.4.9/)

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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:82` 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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