---
title: Proverbs 30:24 (JPS 1917) — There are four things which are little upon the earth, but they are… · tree and pragmatics
description: There are four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: Who acts: four things, things. Proverbs 30:24 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Proverbs 30:24 · JPS 1917

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There are four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:

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**Who acts:** four things, things · **What happens:** be

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This is Proverbs 30:24 · 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 (four things, things), 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:888
# text = There are four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	four	four	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
5	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	7	nsubj	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	acl:relcl	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	earth	earth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
14	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
15	exceeding	exceeding	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	16	advmod	_	_
16	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
17	:	:	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 | **does** | present | four things |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | four things |  |  |  |  | upon the earth; little *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | present | things *= thing* |  |  |  |  | exceeding, wise *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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אַרְבָּ֣עָה הֵ֭ם קְטַנֵּי־אָ֑רֶץ וְ֝הֵ֗מָּה חֲכָמִ֥ים מְחֻכָּמִֽים׃

[Proverbs 30:24: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.30.24/)

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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:888` 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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