Abstract

Can we translate every performative to constative? If we can do this, does it mean that performatives are constatives? J. L. Austin made a distinction between performative and constative, but in time he gave up that distinction. Some theoreticians criticize Austin for using just conventional acts and for his attitude that performatives are not spiritual acts . We accept performatives as conventional and spiritual acts. In this paper the author explores some conventional speech acts- imperatives and requests, using Austin's conditions for successful speech acts and giving the argument against ambiguity thesis