Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Cosmos" <cosmos AT intergate.com>]

Greetings.

I am new to the list. I need to point out that I am not an academic - my 
access to the literature is limited to what shows up on the web - and my 
knowledge of Hebrew is extremely limited. I ask, therefore, that you keep my 
inexperience in mind as you reply. Fortunately, my questions are of a general 
nature, and not dependent upon the finer points of grammar. 
I will open with a question that is fundamental to one part of my personal 
research. I have identified some possible answers, but I consider them far 
from authoritative. So I will await whatever input you may have. 

I am aware that different lexicons/ dictionaries list some definitions with a 
single word (root), and others list multiple,  identical, words and split the 
definitions between them. Bara (create) is the example I have in mind. 
(Please note that I do not wish to debate bara. Besides, I view myself as a 
mouse among elephants. I do not wish to be trampled!) My question concerns 
the present state of scholarship as it relates to the following:

How does one determine whether a word should be listed as a homograph? What 
is the process? Is the choice made from the grammar, context, or both. Are 
there other considerations? Is it an art? Or, is it a science? Also, I am 
interested in knowing if there is only one answer, or if different scholars 
might answer the question differently. 

If there is some source that a dilettante such as I might access, and make 
sense of, please note it.

Your responses would be deeply appreciated.

Thank you,
Steve Teague