---
title: Proverbs 17:20 (JPS 1917) — He that hath a froward heart findeth no good; and he that hath a per… · tree and pragmatics
description: He that hath a froward heart findeth no good; and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into evil. Who acts: brother. Proverbs 17:20 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 17:20 · JPS 1917

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He that hath a froward heart findeth no good; and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into evil.

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**Who acts:** brother · **What happens:** have, find, fall · **To what, where:** froward heart, good, perverse tongue, evil

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This is Proverbs 17:20 · 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 (brother), 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:496
# text = He that hath a froward heart findeth no good; and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into evil.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	3	nsubj	_	_
3	hath	have	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	6	det	_	_
5	froward	froward	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
7	findeth	find	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	9	det	_	_
9	good	good	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	18	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	14	nsubj	_	_
14	hath	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	perverse	perverse	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	falleth	fall	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
19	into	into	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	evil	evil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: neg
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | present |  | a froward heart |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heart=Patient |
| 2 | **find** | present | brother | no good |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent good=Topic |
| 3 | **have** | present |  | a perverse tongue |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=Patient |
| 4 | **fall** | present | brother |  |  |  |  | into evil *result* | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into evil=Result |

<!-- .note -->
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}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
עִקֶּשׁ־לֵ֭ב לֹ֣א יִמְצָא־ט֑וֹב וְנֶהְפָּ֥ךְ בִּ֝לְשׁוֹנ֗וֹ יִפּ֥וֹל בְּרָעָֽה׃

[Proverbs 17:20: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.20/)

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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:496` 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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