"You are more than entitled not to know what the word ‘performative’ means. It is a new word and an ugly word, and perhaps it does not mean anything very much. But at any rate there is one thing in its favor, it is not a profound word." Here Austin elaborates his concept of the performative, in a more comprehensive and less lectorial tone then in the book based on a series of lectures given in 1956 under the title "How To Do Things With Words".

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