---
title: Proverbs 21:19 (JPS 1917) — It is better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and… · tree and pragmatics
description: It is better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and fretful woman. Proverbs 21:19 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 21:19 · JPS 1917

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It is better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and fretful woman.

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**What happens:** be, dwell · **To what, where:** desert land

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This is Proverbs 21:19 · 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: 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:607
# text = It is better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and fretful woman.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	expl	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	better	better	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	dwell	dwell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	csubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	desert	desert	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	land	land	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	than	than	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
12	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
14	contentious	contentious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	fretful	fretful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	conj	_	_
17	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: suggest
- voice: narrator
- polarity: pos
- teacher: changed polarity=pos

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present |  |  |  |  |  | better *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **dwell** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | a desert land |  | than a contentious woman | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in land=Location |

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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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ט֗וֹב שֶׁ֥בֶת בְּאֶֽרֶץ־מִדְבָּ֑ר מֵאֵ֖שֶׁת מִדְיָנִ֣ים וָכָֽעַס׃

[Proverbs 21:19: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.19/)

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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:607` 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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