performative
[ per-fawr-muh-tiv ]
/ pərˈfɔr mə tɪv /
|
adjective Philosophy, Linguistics.
(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
a performative utterance.
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Whomever vs. WhoeverRaise your hand if you’ve had the who vs. whom argument. Isn’t it time to put that struggle to rest? Whoever is a pronoun that describes someone who performs an action, while whomever is a pronoun that describes someone who receives an action. Both whoever and whomever are interrogative pronouns that deal with people. Whoever Whoever is a subjective pronoun: It describes an unknown person …
Nearby words
Compare constative.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for performative
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 Glory|Marlow Stern|February 22, 2014|DAILY BEASTThis, you could say, is the tension at the heart of much of the West's performative art.
British Dictionary definitions for performative
performative
/ (pəˈfɔːmətɪv) /
adjective linguistics philosophy
- 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
Derived Formsperformatively, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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