Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка. Тивьяева И.В. - 119 стр.

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It should be noted that the specifics of pragmatic contents of an utterance

can impose some formal restrictions on the sentence. For example, a constative can

never be a question, promisives and menacives always refer to future and contain

future tense forms.

Performatives

An interesting type of illocutionary speech act is that of performatives

These are speech acts of a special kind where the utterance of the right words by

the right person in the right situation effectively is (or accomplishes) the social act.

In some cases, the speech must be accompanied by a ceremonial or ritual action.

Whether the speaker in fact has the social or legal (or other kind of) standing to

accomplish the act depends on some things beyond the mere speaking of the

words. These are felicity conditions.

Here are some examples from different spheres of human activity, where

performatives are found at work. These are loose categories, and many

performatives belong to more than one of them:

Universities and schools: conferring of degrees, rusticating or excluding students

The church: baptizing, confirming and marrying, exorcism, commination (cursing)

and

Excommunication

Governance and civic life: crowning of monarchs, dissolution of Parliament,

passing legislation, awarding honours, ennobling or decorating

The law: enacting or enforcing of various judgements, passing sentence, swearing

oaths and

plighting one’s troth

The armed services: signing on, giving an order to attack, retreat or open fire

Sport: cautioning or sending off players, giving players out, appealing for a

dismissal or declaring (closing an innings) in cricket

Business: hiring and firing, establishing a verbal contract, naming a ship

Gaming: placing a bet, raising the stakes in poker