---
title: Proverbs 20:3 (JPS 1917) — It is an honour for a man to keep aloof from strife; but every fool… · tree and pragmatics
description: It is an honour for a man to keep aloof from strife; but every fool will be snarling. Who acts: fool. Proverbs 20:3 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 20:3 · JPS 1917

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It is an honour for a man to keep aloof from strife; but every fool will be snarling.

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**Who acts:** fool · **What happens:** be, keep, snarl · **To what, where:** honour, strife

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This is Proverbs 20:3 · 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), 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:561
# text = It is an honour for a man to keep aloof from strife; but every fool will be snarling.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	expl	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	honour	honour	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	csubj	_	_
10	aloof	aloof	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
11	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	strife	strife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
14	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
15	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	fool	fool	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
17	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux	_	_
19	snarling	snarl	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- 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 | **is a** | present |  | a honour |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | strife |  | for a man; aloof *property* | vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer from strife=Eventuality |
| 3 | **snarl** | future · progressive | every fool |  |  |  |  |  | vn animal\_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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כָּב֣וֹד לָ֭אִישׁ שֶׁ֣בֶת מֵרִ֑יב וְכָל־אֱ֝וִ֗יל יִתְגַּלָּֽע׃

[Proverbs 20:3: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.20.3/)

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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:561` 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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