The syntactical function

In general, each word in the Tanach has one cantillation sign. This may possibly be either a disjunctive, displaying a division in between that and the following word, or a conjunctive, connecting to the two words (like a slur in music). Therefore, disjunctives separate a passage into terms, and inside each phrase all of the words other than the last carry conjunctives. The disjunctives are traditionally divided in to four ranges, with lower degree disjunctives tagging much less important breaks.

1. The first level, known as ``Emperors'', includes sof pasuq / siluq, marking the actual conclusion of the verse, and atnach / etnachta, marking the middle.

2. The second level is known as ``Kings''. The usual second level disjunctive is zaqef qaton (when on its own, this particular will become zaqef gadol). This is changed by tifcha whenever in the immediate neighbourhood of sof pasuq or atnach. A stronger second level disjunctive, utilized in extremely long verses, is segol: whenever it takes place on its own, this may be replaced by shalshelet.

3. The third level is identified as ``Dukes''. The typical third level disjunctive is revia. With regard to musical reasons, this kind of is actually changed by zarqa whenever within the vicinity of segol, by pashta or yetiv whenever in the vicinity of zakef, and by tevir when in the vicinity of tifcha.

4. The fourth level is acknowledged as ``Counts''. These tend to be found mostly in longer passages, and have a tendency to group close to the beginning of a half-verse: for this cause their own musical realisation is actually more elaborate compared to that of higher degree disjunctives. They are pazer, geresh, gershayim, telishah gedolah, munach legarmeh and qarne farah.

The general conjunctive is munach. Depending upon which disjunctive comes after, this specific may possibly be exchanged by mercha, mahpach, darga, qadma, telisha qetannah or yerach ben yomo. One other mark is mercha kefulah, double mercha. There is some argument regarding whether or not this particular is an additional conjunctive or an occasional replacement for tevir.

Disjunctives have a function somewhat comparable to punctuation in Western languages. Sof pasuq could be thought of as a full stop, atnach as a semi-colon, second level disjunctives as commas and third level disjunctives as commas or unmarked. Where a couple of words are syntactically bound with each other (for example, pene ha-mayim, "the face of the waters"), the initial inevitably carries a conjunctive.