---
title: Proverbs 15:20 (JPS 1917) — A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish man despiseth his mot… · tree and pragmatics
description: A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish man despiseth his mother. Who acts: wise son, foolish man. Proverbs 15:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 15:20 · JPS 1917

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A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish man despiseth his mother.

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**Who acts:** wise son, foolish man · **What happens:** make, despise · **To what, where:** glad father, mother

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This is Proverbs 15:20 · 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 (wise son, foolish man), 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:430
# text = A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish man despiseth his mother.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	maketh	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	despiseth	despise	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: evaluate
- 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 | **make** | present | a wise son | a glad father |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent father=Product |
| 2 | **despise** | present | a foolish man | son's mother |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer mother=Stimulus |

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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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בֵּ֣ן חָ֭כָם יְשַׂמַּח־אָ֑ב וּכְסִ֥יל אָ֝דָ֗ם בּוֹזֶ֥ה אִמּֽוֹ׃

[Proverbs 15:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.20/)

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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:430` 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 15:19 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.429/)
- next →: [Proverbs 15:21 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.431/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 15:20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.20/)