Editing Performativity (section)

{{Short description|Linguistic quality}}{{Primary sources|date=February 2025}}{{Original research|date=February 2025|reason=}}

'''Performativity''' is the concept that [[language]] can function as a form of social action and have the effect of change.<ref name=Cavanaugh>{{cite journal|last1=Cavanaugh|first1=Jillian R.|title=Performativity|journal=Anthropology|date=10 March 2015|doi=10.1093/OBO/9780199766567-0114|url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0114.xml|access-date=10 October 2017}}</ref> The concept has multiple applications in diverse fields such as [[anthropology]], [[Social geography|social]] and [[cultural geography]], [[economics]], [[gender studies]] ([[social construction of gender]]), [[jurisprudence|law]],  [[linguistics]],  [[performance studies]], [[history]], [[Management Studies|management studies]] and [[philosophy]].

The concept is first described by [[philosopher of language]] [[J. L. Austin|John L. Austin]] when he referred to a specific capacity: the capacity of speech and communication to act or to consummate an action. Austin differentiated this from constative language, which he defined as descriptive language that can be "evaluated as true or false". Common examples of performative language are making promises, betting, performing a wedding ceremony, an umpire calling a foul, or a judge pronouncing a verdict.<ref name=Cavanaugh/>

The concept of performance has been developed by such scholars as [[Richard Schechner]], [[Victor Turner]], [[Clifford Geertz]], [[Erving Goffman]], [[J. L. Austin|John Austin]], [[John Searle]], [[Pierre Bourdieu]], Stern and Henderson, and [[Judith Butler]].