---
title: Proverbs 29:12 (JPS 1917) — If a ruler hearkeneth to falsehood, all his servants are wicked. · tree and pragmatics
description: If a ruler hearkeneth to falsehood, all his servants are wicked. Who acts: ruler, servants. Proverbs 29:12 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 29:12 · JPS 1917

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If a ruler hearkeneth to falsehood, all his servants are wicked.

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**Who acts:** ruler, servants · **What happens:** hearken, be

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This is Proverbs 29:12 · 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 (ruler, servants), 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:844
# text = If a ruler hearkeneth to falsehood, all his servants are wicked.
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	ruler	ruler	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	hearkeneth	hearken	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	falsehood	falsehood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
8	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	10	det:predet	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
11	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
12	wicked	wicked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: character
- polarity: neg
- teacher: changed act=assert, voice=character

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hearken** *a condition, not said to happen* | present | a ruler |  |  |  |  | to falsehood | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** | present | man's servants |  |  |  |  | wicked *property* | tree rules |

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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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מֹ֭שֵׁל מַקְשִׁ֣יב עַל־דְּבַר־שָׁ֑קֶר כָּֽל־מְשָׁרְתָ֥יו רְשָׁעִֽים׃

[Proverbs 29:12: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.29.12/)

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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:844` 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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