diff --git a/specification/trace/api.md b/specification/trace/api.md
index f46ff135504..ee44740154e 100644
--- a/specification/trace/api.md
+++ b/specification/trace/api.md
@@ -697,7 +697,9 @@ and its children in a Trace.  `SpanKind` describes two independent
 properties that benefit tracing systems during analysis.
 
 The first property described by `SpanKind` reflects whether the Span
-is a remote child or parent.  Spans with a remote parent are
+is a "logical" remote child or parent. By "logical", we mean that
+the span is logically a remote child or parent, from the point of view
+of the library that is being instrumented. Spans with a remote parent are
 interesting because they are sources of external load.  Spans with a
 remote child are interesting because they reflect a non-local system
 dependency.
@@ -716,21 +718,28 @@ remote span.  As a simple guideline, instrumentation should create a
 new Span prior to extracting and serializing the SpanContext for a
 remote call.
 
+Note: there are complex scenarios where a CLIENT span may have a child
+that is also logically a CLIENT span, or a PRODUCER span might have a local child
+that is a CLIENT span, depending on how the various libraries that are providing
+the functionality are built and instrumented. These scenarios, when they occur,
+should be detailed in the semantic conventions appropriate to the relevant
+libraries.
+
 These are the possible SpanKinds:
 
 * `SERVER` Indicates that the span covers server-side handling of a
-  synchronous RPC or other remote request.  This span is the child of
-  a remote `CLIENT` span that was expected to wait for a response.
-* `CLIENT` Indicates that the span describes a synchronous request to
-  some remote service.  This span is the parent of a remote `SERVER`
-  span and waits for its response.
-* `PRODUCER` Indicates that the span describes the parent of an
-  asynchronous request.  This parent span is expected to end before
+  synchronous RPC or other remote request.  This span is often the child
+  of a remote `CLIENT` span that was expected to wait for a response.
+* `CLIENT` Indicates that the span describes a request to
+  some remote service.  This span is usually the parent of a remote `SERVER`
+  span and does not end until the response is received.
+* `PRODUCER` Indicates that the span describes the initiators of an
+  asynchronous request.  This parent span will often end before
   the corresponding child `CONSUMER` span, possibly even before the
   child span starts. In messaging scenarios with batching, tracing
   individual messages requires a new `PRODUCER` span per message to
   be created.
-* `CONSUMER` Indicates that the span describes the child of an
+* `CONSUMER` Indicates that the span describes a child of an
   asynchronous `PRODUCER` request.
 * `INTERNAL` Default value. Indicates that the span represents an
   internal operation within an application, as opposed to an
@@ -739,7 +748,7 @@ These are the possible SpanKinds:
 To summarize the interpretation of these kinds:
 
 | `SpanKind` | Synchronous | Asynchronous | Remote Incoming | Remote Outgoing |
-|--|--|--|--|--|
+|---|---|---|---|---|
 | `CLIENT` | yes | | | yes |
 | `SERVER` | yes | | yes | |
 | `PRODUCER` | | yes | | maybe |