Lexical definitions of some performative verbs
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Date
2015
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
The author upholds Anna Wierzbicka’s opinion that unless strict scientific definitions of
performatives are reached, no successful classification of these verbs can be made. The article
compares definitions of the verb elect and four performative verbs (appoint, declare,
excommunicate and pronounce) as presented in four English dictionaries, as well as in the form of
Wierzbicka’s explicatives and the author’s formulations reached by means of the collocational
method. This method seeks to gain a realistic insight into the semantic structure of lexemes
because most metalinguistic elements are drawn from facts offered by the language itself. The
definitions of the performative verbs, like of any other verb, can be marshalled by combining and
incorporating semantic definitions of the collocating grammar words and constructions. The latter
task is done by extracting the common content of the grammar words and constructions in the
relevant meanings as appearing in collocations of their own. The same procedure is carried out for
the noun collocates occurring in the subject and object slots of the verbs in question. The
performative force within this small lexical field manifests gradation, depending on the presence
of a person in authority.
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Keywords
collocation, performative verbs, lexical definitions, semantics, collocational method
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 50.1 (2015), pp. 27-44