Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - Csaba Czeglédi: On Constative and Performative Utterances

unhappiness type may infect statements (or some statements) and considerations of the type of truth and falsity may infect performatives (or some performatives)

. Since it seems that neither the distinction in terms of truth or falsity nor the distinction in terms of happiness or unhappiness can uniquely apply to one or the other type of utterances, Austin searches for grammatical criteria to distinguish them. But, he concludes, the search leads to "an impasse over any single simple criterion of grammar or vocabulary" (p. 59) because all the grammatical criteria that characterize performative utterances will also be met by utterances like "I state that . . .," which are considered constative. Moreover, since "statements are liable to every kind of infelicity to which performatives are liable" (p. 136), that is to say, as speech acts they are subject to the same felicity conditions as performatives, "there can hardly be any longer a possibility of not seeing that stating is performing an act" (p. 139). Thus we are forced to conclude that statements are performatives, which amounts to saying that constatives are performatives. Considerations of this kind lead Austin to conclude that the performative

—constative distinction is to be discarded and that it must be replaced by the distinction between locutionary and illocutionary acts within the speech act, because "in general and for all utterances that we have considered (except perhaps for swearing)

, we have found: (1) Happiness/unhappiness dimension, (la) An illocutionary force, (2) Truth/falsehood dimension, (2a) A locutionary meaning (sense and reference)" (p. 148). Thus we are forced to conclude that there are no constative utterances, at least in terms of the original performative versus constative distinction. All of our utterances are performatives. The original idea does not necessarily have to be abandoned, however, since examples like (4) I am cold (5) This line is printed in bold. 14