Performative - Glottopedia

Constative utterances describe states of affairs which are either true or false. They are utterances which describe the world and in so doing ... Performative FromGlottopedia Jumptonavigation Jumptosearch Theterm"Performative"wasintroducedbyJohnLangshawAustin(1911-1960)inhisphilosophicallecturesHowtodothingswithwords(1962),whichwaspublishedtwoyearsafterhisdeath.InthecontextofAustin'stheoryofspeechacts"performative"wasappliedtothoseutteranceswhichareusedtoperformanactinsteadofdescribingit.Performativeutterancesthusstandinoppositiontoconstativeutterances,whicharestatementsoffacts. Contents 1JohnL.AustinandhisTheoryofSpeechActs 1.1Constatives 1.2Performatives 1.2.1PerformativeVerbs 1.2.2ExplicitPerformativesandPrimaryUtterances 2FelicityConditions 2.1Misfires 2.2Abuses 3ProblemswithPerformatives 4Links 5References JohnL.AustinandhisTheoryofSpeechActs Languageisnotonlyusedtodescribetheworld.InhisWilliamJameslecturesdeliveredatHarvardUniversityin1955(titled:Howtodothingswithwords),Austincriticizestheviewthatthemainpurposeofsentenceswouldbetostatefactsortodescribesomestateofaffairsaseithertrueorfalse.Hearguesagainst Wikipedia:logicalpositivism(English),whichretainstheviewthattheonlymeaningfulstatementsarethosethatareverifiable(cf.Austin1976:2).Instead,Austinclaimsthatsuchtruth-evaluablesentencesonlyconstituteonetypeofutterance,pointingoutthatthereareothertypesofutteranceswhichareneithertruenorfalse,butnonethelessmeaningful.Hecallsthissecondtypeofutterance"performative".Performativesareusedtocarryoutanaction.Inthattheydifferfromothertypesofdeclarativesentences(constatives)whichonlydescribetheworld(constatives)insystematicways.Onthesyntacticlevel,however,bothperformativesandconstativestakethegrammaticalformofdeclarativesentences.Austinreviseshistheoryconsiderablyinthecourseofhislecturesandeventuallyreplacesthedichotomy‘performative’vs.‘constative’withamoregeneraltheoryofspeechactswhichregardseveryutteranceasatypeofaction.ThistheoryofspeechactsislaterelaboratedbyAustin’sstudentJohnR.Searle. Constatives Constativeutterancesdescribestatesofaffairswhichareeithertrueorfalse.Theyareutteranceswhichdescribetheworldandinsodoingascertainorstatesomething.Constativesmostly(thoughnotnecessarily)havetheformofdeclarativesentences,theyrefertotheactofsayingsomething,and,asmentionedabove,theyaretruth-evaluableoratleastpurporttodescribereality(cf.Petrey1990:4). ExamplesofConstatives Snowiswhite.(true) Snowisred.(false) Performatives Performativeutterancesoftentaketheformofdeclarativesentenceswithwhichthespeakerperformstheactiondenotedbysomeperformativeverb(e.g.promise,declareetc.).Insodoing,thespeakerdoesnotdescribetheworldbutchangesit. Austinclaimsaboutperformativesthat “theydonot‘describe’or‘report’orconstateanythingatall,arenot‘trueorfalse’;andtheutteringofthesentenceis,orisapartof,thedoingofanaction,whichagainwouldnotnormallybedescribedas,oras‘just’,sayingsomething”(Austin1976:5). Example Byuttering(i)thespeakeractuallymakesanapology,hedoesnotdescribehimselfapologizingforhisbehaviour. (i)Iapologizeformybehaviour Thisdistinguishesperformativesfromconstativeswhichareusedtomakeatrueorfalsestatement.Performativesdonothavetruthconditionsbutfelicityconditions. PerformativeVerbs Thetypeofverbsusedtomakeperformativeutterancesarecalledperformativesorperformativeverbs.Examplesare:promise,name,bet,agree,swear,declare,order,predict,warn,insist,declareorrefuse.Thepropositionalcontentoftheutterancefunctionsasacomplementoftheperformativeverb. Characteristicsofperformativeverbsare: Performativeverbsareverbsthatdescribeactionscarriedoutbyspeakers. Theyareusedin1stpersonsingular,simplepresent,indicative,active. Theycanbecombinedwithhereby(cf.Bublitz2009:75f). Austin(1976:5)providesthefollowingexamplesofperformativesinhiswork: a) “‘Ido(sc.Takethiswomantobemylawfulweddedwife)’–asutteredinthecourseofthemarriageceremony.” b) “‘InamethisshiptheQueenElisabeth’–asutteredwhensmashingthebottleagainstthestem.” c) “‘Igiveandbequeathmywatchtomybrother’–asoccurringinawill.” d) “‘Ibetyousixpenceitwillraintomorrow.’” ExplicitPerformativesandPrimaryUtterances Duetothefactthatthedistinctionbetweenperformativesandconstativesisquestionableinseveralways,Austinfurtherdistinguishesbetweenexplicitperformativesandprimaryutterances. Examples “primaryutterance:‘Ishallbethere.’ explicitperformative:‘IpromisethatIshallbethere.’”(Austin1976:69). Thefirstexampledoesnotmakeuseofaperformativeverb,whereastheseconddoes.Still,bothexampleshavesimilarimplications,i.e.theybotharepromises,butonlyinthesecondexamplethepromiseismadeexplicit.Atthispoint,Austinrecognizesthatanutterancecanalsobeperformativewithoutincludingaperformativeverb.Forexample,"Isaluteyou"isanactofgreetingjustas"Salaam." FelicityConditions Inhissecondlecture“Conditionsforhappyperformatives”(1976:12-24),Austinidentifiesasetofruleswhichgovernthefelicitousor‘successful’useofperformativeutterances.These‘felicityconditions’applyespeciallytoperformativesassociatedwithspecificritualsorothertypesofformalevents(cf.Thomas1997:37).AccordingtoAustin(1976:14f),thefollowingconditionsmustbemetforaperformativesentencetobesuccessful: A.1 “Theremustexistanacceptedconventionalprocedurehavingacertainconventionaleffect,thatproceduretoincludetheutteringofcertainwordsbycertainpersonsincertaincircumstances,andfurther, A.2 theparticularpersonsandcircumstancesinagivencasemustbeappropriatefortheinvocationoftheparticularprocedureinvoked. B.1 Theproceduremustbeexecutedbyallparticipantsbothcorrectlyand B.2 Completely. C.1 Where,asoften,theprocedureisdesignedforusebypersonshavingcertainthoughtsorfeelings,orfortheinaugurationofcertainconsequentialconductonthepartofanyparticipant,thenapersonparticipatinginandsoinvokingtheproceduremustinfacthavethosethoughtsoffeelings,andtheparticipantsmustintendsotoconductthemselves,andfurther C.2 mustactuallysoconductthemselvessubsequently.”(Austin1976:14f) Misfires TheconditionsunderAandBareessentialtothefirstgroupofinfelicitieswhichAustincalls“Misfires.”(Austin:1976:16)Notobservingtheserulesmakestheactinvalid,sothatitdoesnottakeeffect.Forexample,ifahusbandsaystohiswife‘Idivorceyou’,thisisaninfelicitousspeechactbecauseonecannotgetdivorcedbyoneself,sotheutterancedoesnothaveaconventionaleffect.AnotherexampleoccursifspeakerAsays:‘Ibetyousixpence’butspeakerBdoesn’tsay‘Itakeyouon.’ Abuses TheconditionslistedunderC–whenviolated–maketheprofessedactanabuseoftheprocedure.Austinstatesthatsuchperformancesarenotvoidbut“unhappy.”(Austin1976:15,43)Forexample,whenthespeakersays"Icongratulateyou",althoughthespeakerdoesnothavetherequisitefeelings.(Austin1976:41) ProblemswithPerformatives Austinmodifiedhistheoryduringhislecturesconsiderably.Attheendofhislectures,hereplaceshisperformative/constativedistinctionwithamoregeneraltheoryofspeechacts,statingthat"thetraditional'statement'isanabstraction,anideal"(Austin1962:148).Performativeverbsascriteriaforclassifyingspeechactsarereplacedbytypesofillocutionaryforcewhichareassociatedwithanutterance.Thenotionof‘performative’,whichwasbasedontheperformative/constativedistinction,hasthusbeenreplacedwithmoregeneralfamiliesofrelatedandoverlappingspeech-acts(Austin1962:150).Austindistinguishesfivegeneralclassesofutteranceswhichareclassifiedaccordingtotheirillocutionaryforce: Verdictives(usedtojudgefromsomething,examples:estimate,reckoning,appraisal) Exercitives(usedtoexercisepowers,rightsorinfluence.Examples:appointing,voting,ordering) Commissives(usedtocommityourselftodoingsth.example:promising) Behabitives(usedtoexpressattitudesorsocialbehaviourtowardssomeone.examples:Congratulating,challenging) Expositives(makeplainhowweareusingwords.Example:'Iillustrate') (types1-5:cf.Austin1976:151ff) Eventhoughthe‘performative-constative’dichotomywasgivenup,Austin’stheoryhashadgreatinfluenceonmodernlinguistics,ashiswritingisaccessibleandhisworkrepresentsaconsistentlineofthoughts,eventhoughithasoftenbeenmodified(cf.Thomas1997:27). Links UtrechtLexiconofLinguistics PerformativeVerbsonAbout.Grammar.com http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~jsearle/  Wikipedia:logicalpositivism(English) JohnR.Searle John_Langshaw_Austin Speechact References Austin,J.L.(1962)HowtoDoThingswithWords,Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress. mostreferencesonthissitehavebeentakenfromthefollowingedition:Austin,J.L.(1976)Howtodothingswithwords.Oxfordet.al.:OxfordUniversityPress.(occasionallypagenumbersmightbedifferentinbotheditions) Bublitz,Wolfram.(2009)EnglischePragmatik–EineEinführung.Berlin:ErichSchmidt. Petrey,Sandy.(1990)SpeechActsandLiteraryTheory.NewYorket.al.Routledge. Thomas,Jenny.(1997)MeaninginInteraction–AnIntroductiontoPragmatics,Londonet.al.:Longman. ChierchiaandMcConnell-Ginet.(1990)Meaningandgrammar,MITPress,Cambridge,Mass. 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