In forming a theory of communicative interaction between human beings it is necessary to consider some general features implicit in the communicative process. These include the context of situation, philosophical categories, psycholinguistic categories, grammatical categories, and nonverbal categories. Most of these are extra-linguistic and have to do with the social contexts or conceptual conditions. Language and nonverbal acts operate together in a synchronized, coordinated way in human communication. Understanding of the nonverbal input into the speech act will contribute to understanding of the meaning of the speech act. Of particular interest is the context of situation, which comprises the why, how, when, where, who with, what, and under what circumstances. This involves the choice of channel of communication, such as acoustical, optical, tactual, or chemical; the temporal element and the time duration; the location and the space/distance relationship; the description and relationships of the speaker-hearer, as well as the non-participants, or the audience in the surroundings; the physical condition of the surroundings--amount of light, noise, silence, and artifacts; the zeitgeist in which the society finds itself; the individual idiosyncratic condition of the participants; and, finally, the style of communication in the medium and the genre used. The context of situation affects profoundly and with controlling influence the choices in language, from pronunciation features to syntax, larger structures, and nonverbal behavior. An analysis without these considerations could only be done in an extremely narrow sense, and this might be almost useless with regard to meaning. (Author/HW)