Quasi-nominal Phrases in Heian Japanese Conversational Texts ―Cases with Postpositional Particle "ni"―

This paper examines lexical-semantic properties of verbs, adjectives and auxiliaries appearing in quasi-nominal phrases (quasi-nominal construction with adnominal verbal ending) which are accompanied by postpositional particle "ni" in comparison with those without postpositional particle, those with postpositional particle "wo"and other attributive constructions such as adnominal clauses or final-attributives (sentences ending in adnominal form) in colloquial Heian Japanese. The specific findings are as follows: (a) In quasi-nominal phrases with postpositional particle "ni", verbs of emotion/thought/perception, verbs of motion/change, verbs of existence are most frequent, in descending order. (b) In quasi-nominal phrases, all adjectives types (emotional, attributive and intermediate) appear. (c) In quasi-nominal phrases with auxiliary verb, conjecture auxiliary "mu" is most frequent. It is revealed that there are some usage differences between quasi-nominal phrases with postpositional particle "wo" and those with postpositional particle "ni". In order to clarify the relationship between quasi-nominal phrases and final-attributives in the syntax of adnominal-ending forms, it is necessary to examine their uses more extensively, including those accompanied by other postpositional particles