Antecedents of linguistic nonimmediacy were examined in a four-factor analysis of covariance with repeated measures design. Immediacy refers to the language of a message expressing a close relationship to the referent, while nonimmediacy suggests that the language expresses a more distant relationship. Subjects in the study were 118 college students who wrote brief messages in response to hypothetical situations. Receiver status (peer/authority) and receiver attitude (positive/negative) were varied between subjects, while controversiality and importance of the referent were varied (each high/low) within subjects. Cognitive orientation and attitude toward referent were covariates. Cognitive orientation related positively to nonimmediacy. Attitude related negatively to nonimmediacy only when controversiality was controlled. An interaction was found involving all four independent variables. For all four sources, messages about less controversial referents were more nonimmediate than messages about more controversial referents when the referent was high in importance. When the referent was low in importance, the relationship between controversiality and nonimmediacy tended to disappear or reverse. Only for the peer-negative attitude receiver, however, was there a significant positive relationship between controversiality and nonimmediacy when the referent was low in importance. (Author/RL)