This paper examines lexical-semantic properties of Heian Japanese verbs, adjectives and auxiliaries found in colloquial text, with special reference to their usages in adnominal clauses, quasi-nominal phrases (quasi-nominal construction with adnominal verbal ending) and final-attributives (sentences ending in adnominal form). The specific findings are as follows: (a) Verbs of motion/change are most frequent in adnominal clauses, while verbs of emotion/thought/perception are most frequent in final-attributives. The ratio of the two types found in quasi-nominal phrases is the same. (b) All adjective types (emotional, attributive and in-between types) are found in adnominal clauses and quasi-nominal phrases, while only emotional adjectives (often with negative connotation) appear in final-attributives. Comparison of the ratio of adjectives to verbs appearing in the three types of construction shows that the quasi-nominal phrase has intermediate characteristics between the other two constructions. (c) No particular correlations are found between the frequency and the lexical meanings of auxiliaries (conjectural or past) in adnominal clauses and quasi-nominal phrases, while emotion/thought auxiliaries, past/perfective auxiliaries, conjectural auxiliaries, negative auxiliaries, assertive auxiliaries are most frequent, in descending order, in final-attributives. But past auxiliary verb “ki”is more frequent than negative auxiliary verb“zu ”in both quasi-nominal phrases and final-attributives. The three findings above reveal that the quasi-nominal phrase has intermediate characteristics between the adnominal clause and the final-attributive form.
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