---
title: Proverbs 27:17 (JPS 1917) — Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his fri… · tree and pragmatics
description: Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Who acts: Iron, man. Proverbs 27:17 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 27:17 · JPS 1917

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Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

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**Who acts:** Iron, man · **What happens:** sharpen · **To what, where:** iron, countenance

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This is Proverbs 27:17 · 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 (Iron, 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:794
# text = Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
1	Iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	sharpeneth	sharpen	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
4	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	8	punct	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	sharpeneth	sharpen	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	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 | **sharpen** | present | Iron | iron |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent iron=Patient |
| 2 | **sharpen** | present | a man | the countenance of Iron's friend |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent countenance=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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בַּרְזֶ֣ל בְּבַרְזֶ֣ל יָ֑חַד וְ֝אִ֗ישׁ יַ֣חַד פְּנֵֽי־רֵעֵֽהוּ׃

[Proverbs 27:17: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.27.17/)

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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:794` 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 27:16 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.793/)
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- ↑ back to [Proverbs 27:17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.27.17/)