---
title: Proverbs 20:4 (JPS 1917) — The sluggard will not plow when winter setteth in; therefore he shal… · tree and pragmatics
description: The sluggard will not plow when winter setteth in; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing. Who acts: sluggard, winter. Proverbs 20:4 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 20:4 · JPS 1917

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The sluggard will not plow when winter setteth in; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.

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**Who acts:** sluggard, winter · **What happens:** not plow, set in, beg, have · **To what, where:** harvest, nothing

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This is Proverbs 20:4 · 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 (sluggard, winter), 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:562
# text = The sluggard will not plow when winter setteth in; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	sluggard	sluggard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	plow	plow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	8	mark	_	_
7	winter	winter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	setteth	set	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	advcl	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	14	punct	_	_
11	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	beg	beg	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	parataxis	_	_
15	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	harvest	harvest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	conj	_	_
20	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	obj	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **plow** | future | the sluggard |  |  |  |  |  | vn wipe\_instr-10.4.2-1 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **set in** | present | winter |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **beg** *speech: request* | shall | sluggard |  |  | harvest |  | therefore *property* | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **have** | infinitive | sluggard *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |

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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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מֵ֭חֹרֶף עָצֵ֣ל לֹא־יַחֲרֹ֑שׁ וְשָׁאַ֖ל בַּקָּצִ֣יר וָאָֽיִן׃

[Proverbs 20:4: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.20.4/)

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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:562` 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 20:3 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.561/)
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