AENG 311
Performatives and Constatives
Recap…/Descriptive Fallacy
• DESCRIPTIVE FALLACY the sole purpose of making
assertions is to DESCRIBE some state of affairs.
• ‘Simon is in the kitchen’ would be to describe a particular state of
affairs, and nothing more
• The Descriptive Fallacy view is not wholly wrong. An element of
description is involved in many utterances. But description is not
indulged in only for its own sake. There is usually a more basic
purpose behind an utterance.
Performatives and Constatives
• A PERFORMATIVE utterance is one that actually describes the act that
it performs, i.e. it PERFORMS some act and SIMULTANEOUSLY
DESCRIBES that act.
• Compare the following utterances:
• ‘I promise to repay you tomorrow’
• ‘John promised to repay me tomorrow’
Performatives and constatives
• A CONSTATIVE utterance is one which makes an ASSERTION (i.e. it is
often the utterance of a declarative sentence) but is NOT performative.
• Example ‘I’m trying to get this box open with a screwdriver’
• It makes an assertion about a particular state of affairs, but is not
performative, i.e. the utterance does not simultaneously describe and
perform the same act.
Performatives and constatives
• A PERFORMATIVE VERB makes an utterance performative when used
in a
• simple positive
• present tense
• with a 1st person singular subject
• affirmative not negative
• ‘Sentence’ is a performative verb
• ‘I sentence you to be hanged by the neck’ is a performative utterance.
• ‘Punish’ is not a performative verb because
• ‘I punish you’ is not a performative utterance.
Performatives and Constatives
• There are exceptions to the statement that all performative
utterances have 1st person singular subjects.
• ‘You are hereby forbidden to leave this room’
• ‘All passengers on flight number forty-seven are requested to proceed to gate
ten’
• ‘I suggest that you see a psychiatrist as soon as possible’
• ‘This ship is called Titanic’
• ‘We thank you for the compliment you have paid us’
Insert ‘hereby’ before the verb if unsure
Performatives and Constatives
Are the following utterances performative (P) or constative (C)?
(1) ‘I name this ship Hibernia’ P / C
(2) ‘I believe in the dictatorship of the Proletariat’ P / C
(3) ‘I admit I was hasty’ P / C
(4) ‘I think I was wrong’ P / C
(5) ‘I hereby inform you that you are sacked’ P / C
(6) ‘I give you supper every night’ P / C
• Implicit vs explicit performative utterance
