---
title: Proverbs 26:21 (JPS 1917) — As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious… · tree and pragmatics
description: As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife. Who acts: coals. Proverbs 26:21 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 26:21 · JPS 1917

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As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

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**Who acts:** coals · **What happens:** burn, be, kindle · **To what, where:** contentious man, strife

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This is Proverbs 26:21 · 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 (coals), 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:770
# text = As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
2	coals	coal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	amod	_	_
6	coals	coal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	_
12	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
13	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
14	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	contentious	contentious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	parataxis	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	kindle	kindle	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	acl	_	_
20	strife	strife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	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 | **burn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | coals |  |  |  |  | to burning coals and wood to fire | tree rules |
| 3 | **is a** | present |  | a contentious man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **kindle** | to-infinitive | coals *not said here* | strife |  |  |  |  | vn engender-27.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition strife=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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פֶּחָ֣ם לְ֭גֶחָלִים וְעֵצִ֣ים לְאֵ֑שׁ וְאִ֥ישׁ מִ֝דְיָנִ֗ים לְחַרְחַר־רִֽיב׃פ

[Proverbs 26:21: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.26.21/)

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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:770` 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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- ↑ back to [Proverbs 26:21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.26.21/)