---
title: Proverbs 17:22 (JPS 1917) — A merry heart is a good medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bon… · tree and pragmatics
description: A merry heart is a good medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Who acts: merry heart, broken spirit. Proverbs 17:22 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 17:22 · JPS 1917

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A merry heart is a good medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

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**Who acts:** merry heart, broken spirit · **What happens:** be, break, dry · **To what, where:** good medicine, bones

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This is Proverbs 17:22 · 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 (merry heart, broken spirit), 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:498
# text = A merry heart is a good medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	medicine	medicine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	amod	_	_
12	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	drieth	dry	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	bones	bone	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: evaluate
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed act=evaluate, voice=character

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | a merry heart | a good medicine |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **break** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **dry** | present | a broken spirit | the bones |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient bone=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}

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לֵ֣ב שָׂ֭מֵחַ יֵיטִ֣ב גֵּהָ֑ה וְר֥וּחַ נְ֝כֵאָ֗ה תְּיַבֶּשׁ־גָּֽרֶם׃

[Proverbs 17:22: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.22/)

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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:498` 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 17:21 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.497/)
- next →: [Proverbs 17:23 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.499/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 17:22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.17.22/)