Purpose. This essay attempts to answer the question, What distinguishes inter-human influence from other forms of influence? Methodology. Specifying the micro-foundations of social structures in terms of communicative inferences necessitates a revision of the concept of social structures (and institutions) as distributed, and hence, uncertain, structures of expectation. Institutional realities are generated in linguistic interaction through the indirect communication of generic references. The generalizing function of language: in particular, abstraction and memory, coupled with its reflexive function, to turn references into things, are sufficient to generate both social structures and institutions as collective inferences. Findings. Social relations are fundamentally communicative relations. The communicative relation is triadic, implying an enunciator, an audience, and some referential content. Through linguistic communication, humans are capable of communicating locally with others about others nonlocally.