Reference Identification of Third Person Referential Forms Based on Grounding Theory

Because third person is not the direct participant in speech communication, it is difficult to identify the referential forms of the third person. This study, based on Langacker's grounding theory, explains and explores the cognitive mechanism relevant to the reference identification of third person referential forms in the daily languages of both Chinese and English. The result of the study shows that the third person referential forms change at form, semantic and category level. To get a correct identification of the third person referential forms, the participants of the communication have to build a discourse framework and process it cognitively.