Nearby Words

performative

[per-fawr-muh-tiv]

per·for·ma·tive

[per-fawr-muh-tiv]
adjective Philosophy, Linguistics.
1.
(of an expression or statement) performing an act by the very fact of being uttered, as with the expression “I promise,” that performs the act of promising.
noun
2.
a performative utterance.

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Performative is always a great word to know.
So is zedonk. Does it mean:
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
Compare constative.


Origin:
1950–55; perform + -ative
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To performative
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World English Dictionary
performative (pəˈfɔːmətɪv)
 
adj
1.  a.  locutionary act illocution See also perlocution denoting an utterance that constitutes some act, esp the act described by the verb. For example, I confess that I was there is itself a confession, and so is performative in the narrower sense, while I'd like you to meet … (effecting an introduction) is performative only in the looser sense
 b.  (as noun): that sentence is a performative
2.  a.  denoting a verb that may be used as the main verb in such an utterance
 b.  (as noun): ``promise'' is a performative
 
per'formatively
 
adv

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