constative
- adjective
- /kənˈsteɪtɪv/
- Specialized
:
constativa
- For instance, according to Eve Sedgwick, the wearing of an ACT UP T-shirt with the text, "I am out, therefore I am," is not a constative sign reporting on the wearer's having come out but a performative sign marking the act of coming out (Epistemology 4).
Examples
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The Holocaust is not made present by means of a constative speech act—that is, as a mediated account, as the truthful or untruthful content of the speech act; rather, it is made present as a performative effect.
Academic text (2005) -
The linguist J. L. Austin points out in his lecture series titled How to Do Things with Words that certain utterances, called "performatives," can entail action and not only record or describe action as constative or declarative sentences do.
Academic text (2017) -
One could take this sentence at face value as a philosophically normal, "constative" sentence, in the sense that it is either true or false.
Academic text (2002) -
In speaking of constative speech acts versus acts that "do" the event, Van Alphen is drawing on J.L. Austin's speech act theory, which is the source for the notion of performativity and its current popularity (see Austin 1962).
Academic text (2005) -
A constative statement presents information that can clearly be evaluated as true or false.
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The teacher explained that a constative sentence is one that conveys factual information about the world.
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When analyzing the text, we identified several constative sentences that made verifiable claims.
Synonyms
1
8.3
About statements that can be true or false in logic
A sentence that states a fact or gives information
Surface Forms
Morphology
constative = constate (semi-transparent) = constate + ive
Formed by the regular adjectival suffix '-ive' added to the (rare) verb 'constate'; the derivation is regular but the base verb is low-frequency so the meaning may not be obvious to many learners.
Etymology
The word constative comes from the Latin root constare, which means 'to stand' or 'be established'. So a constative sentence 'stands' as a fact — it says something that can be checked as true or false.