The Grounding Strata of Nominal Independent Clauses in Chinese

Nominal independent clauses (NICs) lack explicit finiteness means, and their grounding mechanism cannot be explained from subject-verb perspective. This paper examines NICs and their usage preference from the perspective of grounding. It finds that the nominal grounding elements of NICs are mainly quantificational. Their clausal grounding mostly relies on the elements in the current discourse space (CDS), such as the speaker’s epistemic or perceptual presence and topic anchoring, to locate NICs in different levels of reality, with the quantificational means converted into clausal qualification. Their grounding strata are mainly situated in potential and perceptual realities, conveying (inter)subjectivity.