Distiction betweeen Constative and Performative

Group-SAAShahnawaz shahid

Ali Furqan SyedAbdul Rauf

Lahore Institute of Future Education, Lahore

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Overview Introduction Constatives Functions of Constative Utterence Problem Constatives Performatives Implicit vs Explicit Performatives Functions of Performative Utterance Happy Performatives Unhappy Performatives

Conclusin References

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Distiction between Constative and Performative

IntroductionJ.L Austin(1962)How to Do Things With Words(Book Name)“how to bridge the gap between language and reality”

Austin tells us at the beginning of his famous 1955

Harvard lectures, published in his book , ‘ How to Do Things with Words’. Austin begins his lectures by politely remarking upon a "mistake" that a certain traditional philosophical attitude toward language is guilty of.

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Conti... This mistake arises from the view that language is

preeminently the tool of constative assertion, that is, a tool primarily interested in providing statements about the world, which are characterizable as either true or false.

Austin proposes a second category of utterances that are not subject to the truth/falsity conditions of propositional knowledge. Rather, these exist as acts in themselves, that is--as Austin dubs them as performatives.

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ConstativesThese are certain utterances which do not denote an action.

They do not contain a performative verb that would direct the other party to perform an action. As Austin says, these constatives are used only in descriptions and assertions e.g. somebody may say that "the window is open".

These contain following Characteristics: describe or report something are true or false uttering a constative is "just" saying something

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Functions Of constative Utterance

A constative utterance performs the following functions:

It conveys a message; That message can be compared to the "real world" and

declared true or false A failed constative is false, unclear, or void of reference (that

is, the thing it's talking about doesn't exist). Example: “Ali 's cat Mano is remarkably handsome," if clear

criteria for handsomeness have been established, and we confirm that Mano meets them.

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Problem Constatives

False Statement Example:She's the redhead who's missing a tooth." Oops.

She changed her hair color before we made this statement; the facts render it false.

Unclear Sentences (Not properly confirmed) Example:"I have forgotten my umbrella," when scrawled on

the margins of a dead philosopher's notes; "That's unfair," when it's not clear what "that" is, or why I object to it.

Non existence of referent Example:"The king of France is bald." The referent--the king

of France--doesn't exist.

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Performatives Austin argues that, instead of saying something a

speaker may be doing something or be performing an action, is called a performative.

Examples: give order or commands, get married, baptize,

excommunicate, appoint somebody in a certain social or professional position, make bets, invitations, offers and promises, congratulate, warn, apologize, threaten, curse, protest, toast, thank and bless.

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Implicit Performatives vs Explicit Performatives

Implicit performmativewhat the speaker has in mind by saying it is not specifically indicated Example:‘Don’t say that!’, is implicit because of its implicitness, the sentence

can be, depending on the paralinguistic or kinetic cues given by the speaker, and on the power or status relationship between the speaker and hearer, a warning, a command, a request or a piece of advice.

Explicit PerformativesA speaker has to indicate the speech act involved by inserting the

performative verb before the clause Example:‘I warn you not to say that’, ‘I order you not to say that ‘, ‘I advise

you not to say that’, and ‘I forbid you to say that’, etc.

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Conti... A short list of performative verbs may comprise:

abolish, accept, acknowledge, acquit, admit, admonish, advise, affirm, agree to, announce, answer, apologize, ascribe, ask, assert, assess, assume, authorize, baptize, beg, bet, bid, caution, charge, christen, claim, classify, command, commiserate, compliment, concur, congratulate, convict, counsel, declare, delegate, demand, deny, describe, diagnose, disagree, donate, dub, excuse, exempt, fire, forbid, grant, gua rantee, guess, hire etc

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Functions of Performative Utterance do not describe or reportExample:

I wish you A Happy Birthday are not true or false

(rather, are felicitous or infelicitous)Example:

I bet you two pounds it will rain tomorrow uttering a performative is not "just" saying something (it

is doing something)Example:

I now declare the meeting open.

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Happy Performative vs Unhappy PerformativesHappy Performatives (Well chosen and

appropriate)"I promise to come to your Ball Party," when spoken by

someone who has been invited, to the host of a scheduled party.

Unhappy Performatives (Not well Chosen and Inappropriate)

"I promise to come to your Ball Party," spoken to several hosts successively by a mendacious invitee.

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ConclusionIn conclusion, we can refer back to our initial suggestion that performatives are not simply the polar opposite of constatives. As we have seen, Austin himself took care not to reduce the two types of speech acts to a simple case of binary opposition. But Austin's hypothesis, I have argued, is not radical enough. His performative-constative distinction is better explained along genetic lines, where the performative is understood as the condition of possibility for more specialized constative speech acts.

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References Austin. J.L. How to Do Things with Words. 1962. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1975.http://lib.uinmalang.ac.id/files/thesis/fullchapter/05320113.pdfYULE, G. (1996): Pragmatics, Oxford, Oxford UniversityPress.ELENA LOPEZ ALVERZ: Performative Speech Act Verbs in Present Day English, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Thank You….Allah hafiz…

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