performative utterance

English

Etymology

Coined by British philosopher J. L. Austin (1911–1960).

Noun

Examples
  • “I now pronounce you husband and wife” (when uttered by the authorized officiator during a marriage ceremony)
  • “You're fired!” (when exclaimed by an employer terminating a person's employment)

performative utterance (plural performative utterances)

  1. (philosophy, linguistics) A sentence or other linguistic expression which, when expressed in an appropriate context, actually does or accomplishes something.

Translations

References

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.