The Semantics of Trwm in Middle Welsh Prose

Abstract

Like its Goidelic cognate trom, analysed in Dereza (this volume), Welsh trwm is highly polysemous. In contrast to Dereza’s more general approach, I discuss here in detail the usage of this adjective in one relatively short period, based on the Welsh Prose 1300–1425 corpus (Luft et al. 2013). In order to make the Goidelic and Welsh data comparable, I analyse my data using the same classification of senses as Dereza. Despite some difficulties arising from the structure of the corpus used, I discuss the frequency of the usage within the four domains: experiential, parametrical, psycho-physiological and emotional. The last domain is the main focus of my attention due to the diversity of constructions in which trwm is thus used. I end by drawing some conclusions concerning the use of Celtic data in lexical typology.