Levels of Reality

Two fundamental aspects of conceptual and linguistic structure are examined in relation to one another: organization into <b>strata</b>, each a <b>baseline</b> giving rise to the next by <b>elaboration</b>; and the conceptions of <b>reality</b> implicated at successive levels of English clause structure. A clause profiles an <b>occurrence</b> (event or state) and <b>grounds</b> it by assessing its epistemic status (location vis-&#224;-vis reality). Three levels are distinguished in which different notions of reality correlate with particular structural features. In <b>baseline</b> <b>clauses</b>, grounded by &#8220;tense,&#8222; the profiled occurrence belongs to <b>baseline reality</b> (the established history of occurrences). <b>Basic clauses</b> incorporate perspective (passive, progressive, and perfect), and since grounding includes the grammaticized modals, as well as negation, <b>basic reality</b> is more elaborate. A basic clause expresses a <b>proposition</b>, comprising the grounded structure and the epistemic status specified by basic grounding. At higher strata, propositions are themselves subject to epistemic assessment, in which conceptualizers negotiate their validity; propositions accepted as valid constitute <b>propositional reality</b>. Propositions are assessed through <b>interactive grounding</b>, in the form of questioning and polarity focusing, and by <b>complementation</b>, in which the matrix clause indicates the status of the complement.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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