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"performative" expressions

majlo

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In sports and games many expressions are "performative". For example, by shouting You're out, the first base umpire performs an act.

Do you know more such expressions? If so, I'd be grateful if you shared it. 👁 Smile :)
Im not exactly sure if this is what you mean, but when someone is really playing well you can say "he is on fire!".

Here are some more

3 ball - 3 point shot in basketball

he is shooting lights out - means he is shooting very well and hitting almost all his shots

There are many more, but I am currently having a mental block. 👁 Roll Eyes :rolleyes:
The most typical example is

We find the defendent guilty.

BAM. That's gotta suck.

Also, most courts have ruled that "Fire!" when shouted in a crowded place is performative and thus illegal.

But a lot of speculation also goes into whether other words are performative, especially hate speech.

How to Do Things with Words by J. L. Austin is a great great read on the topic.
Thanks for your input and the links. They've really come in handy. But I really need about 6 performatives taken from some sports. I don't have the opportunity to commune with NHL, NBA, NFL, cricket etc. daily. Maybe I'll quote the definition from the article (Performative utterances are speech acts which perform the action the sentence describes.). If you could add a few such expressions, I'd be really grateful.
Well, in baseball, I guess there would be the opposite of "You're out": "Safe!" 👁 Smile :)


Does the child's game tag count for your exercise? If so then "Tag, you're it" might qualify (although technically, I suppose it's the tagging itself that makes one "it").

Elizabeth
Tag can also count for this exercise. Just like any other game, whether it be a child's game like tag or an "adult" game like baseball. If "Tag, you're it" means "Got you, you are chasing now", it can definitely qualify. 👁 Smile :)
Thanks for your input. 👁 Smile :)
Another would be, "Fair ball!" when a grounder touches the top of the 3rd base bag before skittering foul. By the umpire's utterance of "Fair ball!", it makes it so--which will then get the left fielder and/or third baseman also skittering into foul territory to retrieve said ball and get it back into the infield as soon as possible.

The trouble with performative expressions, is they are often called by referees with hand gestures rather than being performative utterances.

Another baseball utterance (also shown with hand gestures) would be that the runner is, "Safe!" at home plate, or on any other base.
"Strike!"
"Ball--low and inside!"
"Strike three, you're out!"

all are performance utterances. Because they are calls by the umpire, and he is the last word in the game, his words make it so. By declaring that a pitch is a ball, it is a ball. By declaring it's a strike, it's a strike.

I hope this helps.
mjscott, that's the very thing I needed. Thank you so so so much. I will need it for my linguistics test next week. 👁 Smile :)
I need half a dozen of them, so 1 still to go. Anyone please? 👁 Smile :)
Maybe ice hockey, or football?
For football, what about these referee/umpire phrases: "First down." "Time out." "Two minute warning (there are now only two minutes left." As mjscott noted, lots of these happen with hand-gestures for the benefit of those watching the game from the stands or on TV, but the phrases might still be uttered up close. 👁 Wink ;)
I don't know hockey, sorry.

In boxing, "The winner and still world-champion is..." ?? Or when an umpire in any sport throws a player out of the game: "You're out of here!"

Elizabeth
In American football, the team with the ball has 4 chances after receiving the ball to get it 10 yards down the field towards their goal. Each chance is called a down. If they don't advance it that 10 yards in four downs, then the other team gets the ball at the spot where the team with the ball last had it. That is why a lot of times on the fourth down, they will kick the ball--to get it as far down field and away from the other team's goal as they can.

PS to majlo: If this is for a test, I would be careful with using things such as "first down" as a performance utterance. No referee would be foolish enough to declare "first down" if the ball could not be measured (which they often do with a 10-yard chain) 10 yards out from where the team started out. It is not his utterance that "makes it so."

A decent performative expression in basketball would be to call "traveling," or a foul on a player. Although professional basketball has players all the time who take more than two steps without dribbling the ball (which is not legal--check out any footage of Shaquille O'Neal, who gets away with it quite often) it is not until the referee blows his whistle and calls the foul that it becomes a performative expression--a foul which gives the other team the ball.

Another one would be to call "palming the ball."
Yes. I think traveling is a good example here. Is there any particular expression which a referee uses when calling travelling or foul?
I promise is a performative verb, isn't it ? There's no other way of promising than saying you do. Saying it is doing it : I think this matches the definition of a performative expression.
"Travelling!" (accompanied by hands circling around each other)
"Foul!" (accompanied by gesture indicating where the illegal contact occurred)

In many sports, when a qualified player calls "Time out!" that utterance stops play.
LV4-26 said:
I promise is a performative verb, isn't it ? There's no other way of promising than saying you do. Saying it is doing it : I think this matches the definition of a performative expression.

There's actually interesting ethical debates about the performativity of promises. Because I promise is only part of the equation.

I promise I'll post tomorrow.

But what kind of pending information is left unsaid, can we assume the speaker means, as long as I don't get busy, as long as I am still live, as long as it's actually necessary because people are searching for information. A promise is a complicated act that requires a certain amount of assumption.

See: I promise I'll live forever.

That's a ridiculous promise that can't be fulfilled and no one will punish me for failing to commit to my promise. Sometimes a promise is nothing more than absurd speech.

Now an oath is a performative act because it's a special kind of promise with specific guidelines. But how many oaths do you come across?
I'm very happy to have found this thread! I'm interested in the word "Congratulations" - do you think it's performative?
The bride says "I do" - that's performative, it DOES something, it commits to being married, it changes her life.
The priest or whoever says "I pronounce you husband and wife"- that's performative, obviously.
What about the friend saying "congratulations? " By saying it, the friend congratulates.... but doesn't really perform an action, right? "I swear" is performative, "I promise..:" but "congratulations?"
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