ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with verbal immediacy, or those variations which occur within speech itself. It discusses the variations that include linguistic components, such as pronouns, tense, or kinds of symbols (words) used to refer to an object. The linguistic components considered in these analyses include words that designate the object(s) of the communication, a relationship among these objects, an implied or explicit relationship of the speaker to the objects or to their relationships, or a relationship of the speaker to the entire message. The inclusion of spatio-temporal variations in the analysis of nonimmediacy seems to require little further justification or rationale. These variations in our language are often used explicitly to designate the degree of separation of a person from the object of his communication. Variations in the personal pronouns used to denote a referent are also included under denotative specificity. Denotative specificity may also be lacking because of the use of negation.
