Abstract
This article examines how survivors of domestic violence and the institutional authorities to whom they turn for assistance represent verbal aggression in direct quotations and indirect reported speech in legal testimony. Using the theoretical framework proposed by Briggs and Bauman (1992), I suggest that direct quotations and reported speech serve to manage intertextual relationships between (1) the event reported (the alleged abusive incident), (2) the reporting event (the interview), and (3) the legal record in the form of an affidavit. Alterations from direct to indirect reported speech are discussed in terms of their power to neutralize the client's emotion and her evaluation of herself and the alleged abuser. In addition, interviewer-initiated changes from direct to indirect reports of verbal abuse create a text that helps to suggest that the battered woman can be a credible witness for herself and for the legal institutions that agree to advocate for her.
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