--- title: "A Hebrew Tree Bank Based on Cantillation Marks — Wu 2006" description: "The Masoretic cantillation marks of the Hebrew Bible act as a punctuation system that splits each verse into nested units. The authors write the rules as…" authors: ["Andi Wu", "Kirk Lowery"] year: 2006 venue: "Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'06)" source: "https://aclanthology.org/L06-1002/" doi: "10.63317/4om9aybeiiiq" licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lingbulk-2006-wu-hebrew-tree-bank-based-cantillation/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lingbulk-2006-wu-hebrew-tree-bank-based-cantillation/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2006](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2006/) / A Hebrew Tree Bank Based on Cantillation Marks # A Hebrew Tree Bank Based on Cantillation Marks **Authors:** [Andi Wu](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/andi-wu/); Kirk Lowery · **Year:** 2006 · **Venue:** Proceedings of LREC 2006 (Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation) **Link:** [aclanthology.org/L06-1002](https://aclanthology.org/L06-1002/) · library `lingbulk-2006-wu-hebrew-tree-bank-based-cantillation` · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) — summary only [**2** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2757827546) OpenAlex · 2026-10-14 · [**2** citations in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lingbulk-2006-wu-hebrew-tree-bank-based-cantillation/cited-by/) of the 140884 papers whose bibliographies we read · [Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'06)](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/L06-1/) · [licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/L06-1002/) - [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/L06-1002.pdf) - [DOI 10.63317/4om9aybeiiiq](https://doi.org/10.63317/4om9aybeiiiq) - [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2757827546) **Authors (2)** 1. [Andi Wu](https://openalex.org/A5112730666) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/40046594) · h 9 · 477 citations · 19 works 2. [Kirk Lowery](https://openalex.org/A5079424702) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2433495) · h 2 · 23 citations · 26 works Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, 2026-10-14; authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about The Masoretic cantillation marks of the Hebrew Bible act as a punctuation system that splits each verse into nested units. The authors write the rules as a context-free grammar: conjunctive marks join words, disjunctive marks rank the breaks from Rank-1 (Soph Pasuq) down to Rank-5. A CYK parser with separate poetry (Psalms, Proverbs, Job) and prose grammars builds an XML tree bank of every verse. Of 23,213 verses, 23,099 get exactly one tree; the 174 that get several each contain a word with two marks. The authors read the result as a sign that both the grammar and the Masoretic annotation are highly consistent. The grammar uses binary rules, and the paper argues for them over flat ones. ## Ideas - I1. Use the disjunctive rank as a deterministic chunker in the Hebrew reader: the Rank-2 mark (Athnach) gives the main break of a verse. Test whether that break agrees with the main split of the UD root in the `tools/hbo` output, and report the agreement. - I2. Binary versus flat bracketing of runs of equal-rank breaks is a real design choice. Mova can run both on the same verses and measure which one matches the parser's constituents better, rather than adopting either by decree. - I3. The 174 verses with words carrying two marks are a ready list of ambiguous cases. Use them as a test set for the pointed mode of the segmenter and for the cantillation reader. ## For Mova I1 and I2 belong in [languages/hbo/02-cantillation.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/02-cantillation/), and I2 also in [languages/hbo/08-syntax.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/08-syntax/) as a soft bracketing constraint for `gparse` on Hebrew. I3 is a test for `tools/hbo` (pointed mode). The paper's licence is NC, so the verse data is for tests and measurements only, never for a release. ## Cite The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.63317/4om9aybeiiiq](https://doi.org/10.63317/4om9aybeiiiq) ```bibtex @inproceedings{wu2006hebrew, title = {{A Hebrew Tree Bank Based on Cantillation Marks}}, author = {Wu, Andi and Lowery, Kirk}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'06)}, year = {2006}, doi = {10.63317/4om9aybeiiiq}, url = {https://doi.org/10.63317/4om9aybeiiiq} } ``` - [← previous A FrameNet-Based Semantic Role Labeler for Swedish](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/johansson-2006-framenet-based-semantic-role-labeler/) - [next → A Hierarchical Bayesian Language Model Based On Pitman-Yor Processes](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/teh-2006-hierarchical-bayesian-language-model-based/) - [↑ back to papers of 2006](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2006/) ## References 7 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. BFBS (2002). The Masoretes and Punctuation of Bibilcal Hebrew. British & Foreign Bible Society, Machine Assisted Translation Team. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=BFBS+%282002%29%2E+The+Masoretes+and+Punctuation+of+Bibilcal+Hebrew%2E+British+%26+Foreign+Bible+Society%2C+Machine+Assisted+Translation+Team%2E) 2. Groves, A & K. Lowery, eds. (2006). The Westminster Hebrew Bible Morphology Database. Philadelphia: Westminster Hebrew Institute. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Groves%2C+A+%26+K%2E+Lowery%2C+eds%2E+%282006%29%2E+The+Westminster+Hebrew+Bible+Morphology+Database%2E+Philadelphia%3A+Westminster+Hebrew+Institute%2E) 3. Jacobson, J.R. (2002). Chanting the Hebrew Bible. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Jacobson%2C+J%2ER%2E+%282002%29%2E+Chanting+the+Hebrew+Bible%2E+Philadelphia%3A+The+Jewish+Publication+Society%2E) 4. Price, J. (1990). The Syntax of Masoretic Accents in the Hebrew Bible. Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Price%2C+J%2E+%281990%29%2E+The+Syntax+of+Masoretic+Accents+in+the+Hebrew+Bible%2E+Lewiston%2FQueenston%2FLampeter%3A+The+Edwin+Mellen+Press%2E) 5. Richter, H. (2004). Hebrew Cantillation Marks and Their Encoding. [http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~hr/teami](http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~hr/teami). [↗](http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~hr/teami) 6. Selkirk, E. (1984). Phonology and Syntax: The Relation between Sound and Structure. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Selkirk%2C+E%2E+%281984%29%2E+Phonology+and+Syntax%3A+The+Relation+between+Sound+and+Structure%2E+Cambridge%2C+MA%3A+The+MIT+Press%2E) 7. Wickes, W. (1881). Two Treatises on the Accentuation of the Old Testament. Rev. Reprint by KTAV, New York, 1970. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Wickes%2C+W%2E+%281881%29%2E+Two+Treatises+on+the+Accentuation+of+the+Old+Testament%2E+Rev%2E+Reprint+by+KTAV%2C+New+York%2C+1970%2E)