CNMS

In this paper I have covered the different approaches to studying the Verbal Hebrew System. I have given special attention to Discourse Analysis as a valid and fruitful, albeit new, discipline because, in correlation with other disciplines, it is capable of synchronically explaining the seemingly haphazard behavior of verbal forms according to their different functions within the framework of different types or modes of discourse. This method is able to identify and catalog the hierarchy of language features present within writ-ten texts and then to explain coherently the role these features play in individual texts. Because it focuses on the supra-sentential-level language structures, it takes into account the organizational, componential, and semantic expectations associated with the various textual genres.
In dealing with BH poetry I have also tried to include observations and results from different disciplines, leading up to a pragmatic analysis of a select corpus based on the work of Notarius (2007; 2013). The results of her investigation in BH poetry turned up a high degree of linguistic variation. This should, once and for all, debunk the myth that the grammar of the poetic language as a single, homogeneous phenomenon. With the existing differences between prose and poetry, but also between different poetic texts, one should not wonder why grammarians of the past ran against such overwhelming odds, trying to apply the same rules to all texts, regardless of genre, discourse mode, or structure.