---
title: Proverbs 18:2 (JPS 1917) — A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may… · tree and pragmatics
description: A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may lay itself bare. Who acts: fool, heart. Proverbs 18:2 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 18:2 · JPS 1917

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A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may lay itself bare.

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**Who acts:** fool, heart · **What happens:** have, lay · **To what, where:** delight, understanding, heart

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This is Proverbs 18:2 · 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 (fool, heart), 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:506
# text = A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may lay itself bare.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	hath	have	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	5	det	_	_
5	delight	delight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	understanding	understanding	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
10	only	only	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
14	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	lay	lay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
16	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obj	_	_
17	bare	bare	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	_
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: narrate
- 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 | **have** | present | a fool | no delight |  | understanding |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent delight=Patient |
| 2 | **lay** | may | fool's heart | heart |  |  |  | bare *property* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Result |

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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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לֹֽא־יַחְפֹּ֣ץ כְּ֭סִיל בִּתְבוּנָ֑ה כִּ֝֗י אִֽם־בְּהִתְגַּלּ֥וֹת לִבּֽוֹ׃

[Proverbs 18:2: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.18.2/)

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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:506` 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 18:1 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.505/)
- next →: [Proverbs 18:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.507/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 18:2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.18.2/)