---
title: Proverbs 25:15 (JPS 1917) — By long forbearing is a ruler persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh… · tree and pragmatics
description: By long forbearing is a ruler persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone. Who acts: long forbearing, soft tongue. Proverbs 25:15 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 25:15 · JPS 1917

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By long forbearing is a ruler persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.

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**Who acts:** long forbearing, soft tongue · **What happens:** persuade, break · **To what, where:** ruler, bone

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This is Proverbs 25:15 · 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 (long forbearing, soft tongue), 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:736
# text = By long forbearing is a ruler persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	forbearing	forbearing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
4	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux:pass	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	ruler	ruler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj:pass	_	_
7	persuaded	persuade	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	soft	soft	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	tongue	tongue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	breaketh	break	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	bone	bone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	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 | **persuade** | present · passive | long forbearing | a ruler |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 2 | **break** | present | a soft tongue | the bone |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bone=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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בְּאֹ֣רֶךְ אַ֭פַּיִם יְפֻתֶּ֣ה קָצִ֑ין וְלָשׁ֥וֹן רַ֝כָּ֗ה תִּשְׁבָּר־גָּֽרֶם׃

[Proverbs 25:15: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.25.15/)

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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:736` 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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