---
title: Proverbs 15:21 (JPS 1917) — Folly is joy to him that lacketh understanding; but a man of discern… · tree and pragmatics
description: Folly is joy to him that lacketh understanding; but a man of discernment walketh straightforwards. Who acts: Folly, joy, man. Proverbs 15:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 15:21 · JPS 1917

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Folly is joy to him that lacketh understanding; but a man of discernment walketh straightforwards.

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**Who acts:** Folly, joy, man · **What happens:** be, lack, walk · **To what, where:** joy, son, understanding

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This is Proverbs 15:21 · 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 (Folly, joy, 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:431
# text = Folly is joy to him that lacketh understanding; but a man of discernment walketh straightforwards.
1	Folly	folly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	joy	joy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
7	lacketh	lack	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	acl:relcl	_	_
8	understanding	understanding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	15	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	discernment	discernment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod	_	_
15	walketh	walk	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
16	straightforwards	straightforwards	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: evaluate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: kept the draft

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Folly | joy | son |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **lack** | present | joy | understanding |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **walk** | present | a man of discernment |  |  |  |  | straightforwards *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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אִ֭וֶּלֶת שִׂמְחָ֣ה לַחֲסַר־לֵ֑ב וְאִ֥ישׁ תְּ֝בוּנָ֗ה יְיַשֶׁר־לָֽכֶת׃

[Proverbs 15:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.21/)

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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:431` 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 15:20 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.430/)
- next →: [Proverbs 15:22 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.432/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 15:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.21/)