performative
[per-fawr-muh-tiv]
- (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.
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- a performative utterance.
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Compare constative.
Origin of performative
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for performative
Contemporary Examples
George and his brother Richard are the founders of Major League Eating, but George is the performative half of the duo.
It was a technical and performative dance and everyone needed to be on time and in time.
Lupita Nyong’o On Her Magical Journey from Kenya to ‘12 Years A Slave’ and Possible Oscar GloryMarlow Stern
February 22, 2014
This, you could say, is the tension at the heart of much of the West's performative art.
performative
- 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 senseSee also locutionary act, illocution, perlocution
- (as noun)that sentence is a performative
- denoting a verb that may be used as the main verb in such an utterance
- (as noun)``promise'' is a performative
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for performative
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper