Thursday, August 25, 2011

Scary Words # 3: “Performative Utterances”

(Book: Mercer, N. (2000). Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together. Routledge)


“The philosopher J.L. Austin called statements of this kind “performatives”, because saying them amounts to the performance of a specific social action.” (p. 11)


Example: “I now pronounce you husband and wife!”



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