---
title: Proverbs 15:1 (JPS 1917) — A soft answer turneth away wrath; but a grievous word stirreth up an… · tree and pragmatics
description: A soft answer turneth away wrath; but a grievous word stirreth up anger. Who acts: soft answer, grievous word. Proverbs 15:1 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 15:1 · JPS 1917

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A soft answer turneth away wrath; but a grievous word stirreth up anger.

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**Who acts:** soft answer, grievous word · **What happens:** turn away, stir up · **To what, where:** wrath, anger

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This is Proverbs 15:1 · 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 (soft answer, grievous word), 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:411
# text = A soft answer turneth away wrath; but a grievous word stirreth up anger.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	answer	answer	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	turneth	turn	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	away	away	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	wrath	wrath	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	grievous	grievous	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	stirreth	stir	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
13	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
14	anger	anger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	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 | **turn away** | present | a soft answer | wrath |  |  |  |  | vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wrath=Theme |
| 2 | **stir up** | present | a grievous word | anger |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition anger=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}

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מַֽעֲנֶה־רַּ֭ךְ יָשִׁ֣יב חֵמָ֑ה וּדְבַר־עֶ֝֗צֶב יַעֲלֶה־אָֽף׃

[Proverbs 15:1: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.1/)

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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:411` 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 14:35 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.410/)
- next →: [Proverbs 15:2 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.412/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 15:1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.1/)