---
title: Proverbs 17:9 (JPS 1917) — He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that harpeth o… · tree and pragmatics
description: He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that harpeth on a matter estrangeth a familiar friend. Who acts: speech. Proverbs 17:9 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 17:9 · JPS 1917

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He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that harpeth on a matter estrangeth a familiar friend.

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**Who acts:** speech · **What happens:** cover, seek, harp, estrange · **To what, where:** transgression, love, matter, familiar friend

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This is Proverbs 17:9 · 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 (speech), 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:485
# text = He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that harpeth on a matter estrangeth a familiar friend.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	covereth	cover	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	transgression	transgression	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	seeketh	seek	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	love	love	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	16	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
11	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj	_	_
12	harpeth	harp	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	matter	matter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
16	estrangeth	estrange	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	familiar	familiar	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- 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 | **cover** | present |  | a transgression |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme transgression=Destination |
| 2 | **seek** | present | speech | love |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent love=Theme |
| 3 | **harp** | present |  |  |  | a matter |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **estrange** | present | speech | a familiar friend |  |  |  |  | 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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מְֽכַסֶּה־פֶּ֭שַׁע מְבַקֵּ֣שׁ אַהֲבָ֑ה וְשֹׁנֶ֥ה בְ֝דָבָ֗ר מַפְרִ֥יד אַלּֽוּף׃

[Proverbs 17:9: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.9/)

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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:485` 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 17:8 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.484/)
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