constativeperformative

Constativeperformative is a term used in linguistics and philosophy of language to describe utterances that simultaneously express a proposition about the world and perform an action through the act of saying it. The term builds on J. L. Austin’s distinction between constatives, which aim to describe states of affairs and have truth conditions, and performatives, which enact actions by being spoken. In discussions of constativeperformatives, the line between description and action is treated as blurred: the utterance both makes something true in a social sense and performs a social move.

Examples commonly cited include sentences that begin with a performative verb or phrase and simultaneously project content about the world. For instance, "I hereby declare this meeting open" both performs the act of declaring and asserts that the meeting is open. "I christen this ship the Queen Mary" performs a naming action while presenting a proposition about the ship. "I promise to help tomorrow" is a performative that also encodes a content about future assistance. Some analyses treat these as cases where the propositional content has social force that cannot be separated from the act of speaking.

Reception and usage: the term is not universally adopted and remains one among several attempts to describe hybrid speech acts. Critics argue that the classic dichotomy remains useful and that many purported constativeperformatives can be analyzed through standard illocutionary force and felicity conditions rather than as a distinct category.