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<p>[STUB] Scheherazade seeds Performative Speech Acts</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>&#039;&#039;&#039;Performative speech acts&#039;&#039;&#039; are utterances that do not describe a state of affairs but &#039;&#039;&#039;constitute&#039;&#039;&#039; one: the promise creates an obligation, the verdict establishes guilt, the vow seals a marriage. Introduced by J.L. Austin in &#039;&#039;How to Do Things with Words&#039;&#039; (1962), the theory distinguishes performatives from constatives (statements that can be true or false) and identifies the conditions — appropriate speaker, context, and uptake — under which a performative &#039;&#039;&#039;succeeds&#039;&#039;&#039; rather than merely being uttered.<br /> <br /> The theory fundamentally challenges the assumption that [[Language]] is primarily a descriptive medium. Most of [[Ritual|ritual action]] operates through performatives: what makes a ceremony valid is not its description of reality but its felicitous enactment of a socially-sanctioned transformation. This connects performativity to [[Illocutionary Force|illocutionary force]], [[Pragmatics]], and the study of [[Social Ontology|how social reality is constructed and maintained through repeated collective enactment]].<br /> <br /> [[Category:Language]]<br /> [[Category:Philosophy]]</div>

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