Presupposition in courtroom talk can assign victim or perpetrator identity to a speaker

Evidence

A similarly indirect strategy for positioning self or other in discourse is presupposition. In the college rape tribunal hearings analyzed by Susan Ehrlich (2001), for example, the defense exploits presupposition to situate the alleged rape victims as powerful and in sexual control. Repeated references to the attacked women’s purported options and choices presuppose that they could have prevented their rapes, thus framing them as agents in contrast to the prosecution’s representations of them as passive victims. Here identity is located in the situated social positions of rape survivor versus willing participant. — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction, 55

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Shows the micro-mechanism by which identity positions get pinned onto people through what is merely presupposed in word choice — relevant to the reader’s interest in routing mechanisms.
• XREF: connects to: Linguistics decentered identity by showing subjects are positioned in pre-existing discourse; Saying anything requires a contingent positional wager inside language; Speaking requires taking a contingent position within language. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 221 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Discourse constructs subject positions that speakers must occupy regardless of belief #expands (0.85)
• Saying anything requires a contingent positional wager inside language #expands (0.82)
• Linguistics decentered identity by showing subjects are positioned in pre-existing discourse #expands (0.80)
• Speaking requires taking a contingent position within language. #expands (0.80) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 221
• Speech that merely returns another’s words can preserve its own subject-position #qualifies (0.75) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1487
• Adjectives and predication can reorient racial labels into negotiated identity categories #expands (0.73) — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction, 54