Summary of John LangshawAustin Performative Act Theory

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Summary of John LangshawAustin Performative Act Theory
On John Langshaw Austin’s work, How to Do Things with Words, Austin speaking on  perfomative act theory  posited that the term is being gotten from the verb ‘perform’. He defines Performatives as those sentences that denote an action. If a speaker wants his listener or reader to perform an action, he just uses certain words in a certain context that direct the other party to perform that intended action. He posits that performative act could either be stated directly or indirectly. Holding that direct performative contain a performative verb which is apparent to the other party, while the indirect does not rather it only by realizes  the real intention behind the statement that one understands it. Thus, performative act theory has been critiqued that it employs only the speaker-centered model when the meaning of acts is based on mental concept.
Austine, posits that some words are constatives. That is they do not denote an action, also they do not contain a performative verb that would direct the other party to perform an action. Furthermore, Austin held that these constatives are used only in descriptions and assertions. Hence constatives might be performatives. In this kind of dialogue, the nature of communication, listener’s meaning, and the multiplicity of interpretations are neglected. Two other problems may emanate due to the decentralization of meaning. The first being concerned with an ontological issue on convention, while the second problem is related to an epistemological issues.


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