---
title: Proverbs 5:3 (JPS 1917) — For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoothe… · tree and pragmatics
description: For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; Who acts: lips, mouth. Proverbs 5:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 5:3 · JPS 1917

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For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

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**Who acts:** lips, mouth · **What happens:** drop, be · **To what, where:** honey

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This is Proverbs 5:3 · 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 (lips, mouth), 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:PRO:120
# text = For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
1	For	for	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	lips	lip	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
8	drop	drop	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	honey	honey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	smoother	smooth	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	8	conj	_	_
16	than	than	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	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 | **drop** | present | the lips of a strange woman | honey |  |  |  |  | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent honey=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | woman's mouth |  |  |  |  | than oil; smooth *property* | tree rules |

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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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כִּ֤י נֹ֣פֶת תִּ֭טֹּפְנָה שִׂפְתֵ֣י זָרָ֑ה וְחָלָ֖ק מִשֶּׁ֣מֶן חִכָּֽהּ׃

[Proverbs 5:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.5.3/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PRO:120` 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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- ← previous: [Proverbs 5:2 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.119/)
- next →: [Proverbs 5:4 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.121/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 5:3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.5.3/)