interpellate

present singular third person interpellates · participle present interpellating · participle past interpellated · past interpellated

1. obsoleteTo interrupt (someone) so as to inform or question (that person about something).
2. human sciencesTo address (a person) in a way that presupposes a particular identification of them; to give (a person) an identity (which may or may not be accurate).

   […] whereas the Palestinian subjects are interpellated as: the martyr... a young Palestinian... a Palestinian teenager.

   2009, Samia Bazzi, Arab News and Conflict: A Multidisciplinary Discourse Study

   2 more examples

   […] a Master of Ceremonies' words "Ladies and gentlemen" […] interpellates those being addressed as an audience, and one that is differentiated by gender.

   1996, “The Cambridge History of American Literature”, in Sacvan Bercovitch, editor, Poetry and criticism, 1940-1995, volume 8, page 408

   […] the question may be whether the individual should let herself be interpellated as a feminist, a Christian or a worker. Perhaps all of these possibilities seem attractive, but they point in different directions […]

   2002, Marianne Jørgensen, Louise J. Phillips, Discourse Analysis As Theory and Method, page 41

3. transitivegovernmentTo question (someone) formally concerning official or governmental policy or business.

   After the gentleman and Senator [Mariano Jesús] Cuenco interpellated me, I knew already that my bill was hopeless. That is why I presented that bill on February 4th, but it slept the sleep of the just in the Committee on Education.

   1958 May 9, [Roseller Tarroza] Lim, “Manifestaciones del Sen. [Decoroso] Rosales”, in Republic of the Philippines Congressional Record (Senate of the Philippines), volume I, number 67, Manila, Philippines: Bureau of Printing, →OCLC, page 1343, column 1