Entry #3: Speech acts

J. L. Austin was a British linguist who developed the idea that there is a distinction between statements that describe and statements that command. The former are called constatives, which are words that describe something as true or false. The latter are performatives, which are sentences that denote an action. In other words, a constative “is” whereas a performative “does”.
Performatives are sentences that inspire us to perform an action. For example, the word “Recycle” in a trash can, incite us to throw specific kinds of garbage there, not any garbage. However, words not only bring about actions, sometimes words are actions. This is what Austin called speech acts.  These acts include, but are not limited to: ordering, promising, apologizing, warning, sentencing, etc.

Felicity conditions
Just because a sentence is a performative, doesn’t mean that it has the power to incite action. Performatives depend on context and receptors, which are known as felicity conditions.
These are the rules under which a performative can be enacted. They are rather logical: The performative should have proper authoritative, it should be understood, it should be clear and it should be able to be executed. For example, a performative from the mayor of a town would meet all the felicity conditions to enact action, but a performative from a bystander would not.