---
title: Ecclesiastes 5:4 (JPS 1917) — Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest v… · tree and pragmatics
description: Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Who acts: thou. Ecclesiastes 5:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ecclesiastes 5:4 · JPS 1917

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Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

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**Who acts:** thou · **What happens:** be, not vow, vow, not pay

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This is Ecclesiastes 5:4 · 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 (thou), 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:95
# text = Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
1	Better	better	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	expl	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
5	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	8	nsubj	_	_
6	shouldest	should	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	vow	vow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	csubj	_	_
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
10	than	than	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	thou	thou	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=2|PronType=Prs|Style=Arch	14	nsubj	_	_
13	shouldest	should	AUX	MD	Style=Arch|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	vow	vow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	pay	pay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: suggest
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- indirect: yes
- teacher: changed indirect=1

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | better *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **vow** | should | thou |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **vow** | should | thou |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **not** **pay** | infinitive | thou *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 -->
ט֖וֹב אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹֽא־תִדֹּ֑ר מִשֶׁתִּדּ֖וֹרוְלֹ֥א תְשַׁלֵּֽם׃

[Ecclesiastes 5:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/ECC.5.4/)

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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:95` 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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