Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Relating to or being an utterance that performs an act or creates a state of affairs by the fact of its being uttered under appropriate or conventional circumstances, as a justice of the peace uttering I now pronounce you husband and wife at a wedding ceremony, thus creating a legal union, or as one uttering I promise, thus performing the act of promising.
- noun A performative utterance.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Being
enacted as it is said. - noun A
performative utterance .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It's true that I'm interested in performative "ways of reading," in tone itself, and in a poet whose tone remains perplexing, and whose affect feels excessive, to many readers.
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Is it simply "performative" -- a space where feelings and reactions can be more safely aired than in physical spaces?
Internet activism in China Daniel Little 2009
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Is it simply "performative" -- a space where feelings and reactions can be more safely aired than in physical spaces?
Archive 2009-08-01 Daniel Little 2009
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Umpires' calls are what philosophers of language call "performative utterances"—their say-so is what makes it so.
Arbitrary Power in America's Pastime Eric Felten 2011
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So, the plan for victory is what we in the lit crit business call a performative; that is, a saying whose action is accomplished in the uttering.
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It is THIS that is the substance of Christian Hope, which the Pope describes as performative, pulling this hoped for future into the present, allowing the believer to infuse Earth with Heaven.
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Monroe performs characters that are thoroughly defined as performative.
All The Available Light Yona Zeldis McDonough 2002
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Monroe performs characters that are thoroughly defined as performative.
All The Available Light Yona Zeldis McDonough 2002
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We have raised the question: can our encounter with the God who in Christ has shown us his face and opened his heart be for us too not just "informative" but "performative" - that is to say, can it change our lives, so that we know we are redeemed through the hope that it expresses?
Latest Articles 2009
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Because it's not accomplished by the speech act itself, in other words the signing of the contract, you can't call it a performative, which is the linguistics term for what I call language of performance.
unknown title 2008
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