UNIT 3
3.1. !Performative and constative acts "
Performative > to perform (to act, carry out an action)"
Speech act theory "
In class activity: What these utterances have in common?"
• I bet you six pence it will rain tomorrow."
• I hereby christen this ship the Queen Elizabeth II."
• I declare war on ..."
• I apologise.
• I object.
•I bequeath you my Picasso. "
Answer: all the speakers preform something, all of them have the first person singular,
performative verb, all of them are in present simple, perform an action and the intention of
the speaker. The action changes reality. "
PERFORMATIVES
• Cannot be true or false."
• Syntactically, performatives seem to share three common features:"
– They are declarative sentences in present simple."
– The subject is always the first person pronoun – referring to the speaker(s). (can be
plural or singular)"
– Performative verbs will take the adverb “hereby” . (this word can be include. “Por la
presente….”)"
• “I hereby declare you Mayor of Canterbury”."
•(?)“I hereby jog ten miles on Sundays.” This is not performative because it does not
have an effect in reality nor it changes. This is constative and can be true or false. "
PROBLEMS WITH THE THEORY
•However, these distinctive features are not so clear and Austin soon had to reformulate
his performative hypothesis."
•When faced with examples as the following ones, we see that:"
– “I betted you five pounds...”"
(Performative verbs can be used non-performatively)"
– “You are hereby warned”"
(The subject is not necessarily the first person pronoun)"
– “Guilty!”"
