Rhetorical status: A study of its origins, functions, and consequences

Rhetorical status is a feature of all communicative interaction. It is the relative standing or positioning of parties to communication or, defined cognitively, it is this standing as reflected in the identities that interacting parties assign to themselves and to others as communicators, as each takes account of salient qualities of self and others. Rhetorical statuses are mutable and context‐specific, yet quite often durable and consistent across time and place. The concept of rhetorical status is distinctive to communication studies, and it is vital for explaining the efficacy of communication—its power or persuasiveness. To show how rhetorical status enters into everyday communication, we examine a protracted set of interactions between two sisters and a small‐town mayor over disputed water bills.