---
title: Proverbs 21:28 (JPS 1917) — A false witness shall perish; but the man that obeyeth shall speak u… · tree and pragmatics
description: A false witness shall perish; but the man that obeyeth shall speak unchallenged. Who acts: false witness, man. Proverbs 21:28 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 21:28 · JPS 1917

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A false witness shall perish; but the man that obeyeth shall speak unchallenged.

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**Who acts:** false witness, man · **What happens:** perish, obey, speak · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is Proverbs 21:28 · 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 (false witness, man), 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:616
# text = A false witness shall perish; but the man that obeyeth shall speak unchallenged.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	false	false	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	witness	witness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	perish	perish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
6	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
11	obeyeth	obey	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	acl:relcl	_	_
12	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
14	unchallenged	unchallenged	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	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 | **perish** | shall | a false witness |  |  |  |  |  | vn break\_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **obey** | present | the man |  |  |  |  |  | vn abide\_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **speak** *speech: other* | shall | the man |  |  |  |  | unchallenged *property* | vn talk-37.5 «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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עֵד־כְּזָבִ֥ים יֹאבֵ֑ד וְאִ֥ישׁ שׁ֝וֹמֵ֗עַ לָנֶ֥צַח יְדַבֵּֽר׃

[Proverbs 21:28: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.28/)

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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:616` 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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