Relative Language/Relative Words

Relative words gain meaning by comparison. When I think of the sayings such as "i'll call you back in a sec." or "ill be over soon", I think of that as being within the hour. Everyone has their idea of what a little bit or soon might be. The only way of knowing what a person means is comparing what your interpretation is compared to theirs. I am constantly having a problem with a friend of mine saying that she will call me back soon. We were talking one day about what we were going to do. The best time for me to do something was earlier than later, but she did not know that. She had to go because her mom needed her so she said she would call me back soon. I did a few things around the house, completing everything I had to do, but she still did not call me back yet. After two hours past I finally decided to call her. She said that she had gotten done with what her mom wanted her to do a while ago but was waiting to call me back because she did not say i'll call you back in a few minutes, she said i'll call you back soon. She did not want to rush me. Her interpretation of soon was three or four hours later. Even though this may not seem like such a problem, I could only hang out for a short time by the time we got together because I had things planned later. So, we now know how we compare a little bit in time and can take that into consideration when we are talking.