--- 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… 7 references, cited by 2 papers here." 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/wu-2006-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/wu-2006-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 of the 140,884 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 - 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. 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. 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. Topics[Treebanks](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/treebanks/) · [Hebrew & Aramaic](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/) · [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) ## Cite Cite as Andi Wu and Kirk Lowery. 2006. A Hebrew Tree Bank Based on Cantillation Marks. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'06). 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 = {Andi Wu and Kirk Lowery}, 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 Factored Functional Dependency Transformation of the English Penn Treebank for Probabilistic Surface Generation](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/geary-2006-factored-functional-dependency-transformation-english/) - [next → Grammatical Framework (GF) for MT in Sublanguage Domains](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/khegai-2006-grammatical-framework-gf-mt-sublanguage/) - [↑ 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)