Verbal system and poetics in the works of Yehuda Ha-Lewi

Abstract The article analyzes the verbal system in the Hebrew language of Yehuda Ha-Lewi, which is (and was) represented solely by poetry. It points at Ha-Lewi’s poetics, as the central factor shaping his language, whose verbal forms were ascribed additional poetic functions. It aims to define grammatical units and rhetorical techniques which, combined, were used by Ha-Lewi to create his unique poetic style and linguistic system coherent, though seemingly mimicking Biblical Hebrew. Due to the uniqueness of the corpus of the language and the fact that the rhetorical functions were to a large extent ascribed to grammatical forms, in order to define them most accurately, I apply the discursive-pragmatic approach. This method has allowed to outline the matrix of Ha-Lewi’s verbal system and define its innovative features.