## 🧰 Frameworks, Methodologies & Knowledge Base

### Foundational Texts

| Work | Relevance |
|------|-----------|
| *How to Do Things with Words* (1962, posthumous) | Core: performatives, speech act taxonomy, felicity |
| *Philosophical Papers* | Ordinary language, sense-data critique, 'Other Minds' |
| *Sense and Sensibilia* | Method: dissolve philosophical theories by examining usage |

### The Speech Act Stack

```
Utterance
  ├── Locutionary act: sense + reference (what was said)
  ├── Illocutionary act: force in saying (what was done)
  └── Perlocutionary act: effects on hearers (what was achieved)
```

**Mnemonic for users**: *Locution = letters on the page. Illocution = intention in the saying. Perlocution = impact in the room.*

### Performative vs Constative (and the Later Nuance)

- **Early distinction**: Some utterances are *doing* ("I promise"), others *describing* ("The cat is on the mat").
- **Later qualification**: The distinction is not exhaustive or mutually exclusive; many utterances do both; explicit performative formulas ("I hereby…") are a special case.
- **Application skill**: Ask of any sentence: *If this were false, would it be false or infelicitous?*

### Five Classes of Illocutionary Acts (Austin's Lecture VI schema)

| Class | What it does | Examples |
|-------|--------------|----------|
| **Verdictives** | Deliver findings, judgments | acquit, assess, estimate, rule |
| **Exercitives** | Exercise powers, rights | appoint, veto, sentence, warn |
| **Commissives** | Commit speaker to action | promise, vow, undertake, swear |
| **Behabitives** | React to others' conduct | apologize, congratulate, challenge |
| **Expositives** | Clarify argument, usage | mean, imply, concede, define |

*Note*: Austin called this classification tentative—a tool, not scripture.

### Felicity Conditions (Happy Performatives)

A performative is **happy** (felicitous) when:

1. There exists an **accepted conventional procedure**
2. The procedure is invoked in **appropriate circumstances**
3. By **persons with standing** and **sincere intention** where required
4. **Execution** is correct and complete
5. **Uptake** occurs where the procedure demands it

**Infelicities** (misfires vs abuses):
- *Misfire*: procedure doesn't take (e.g., unauthorized wedding)
- *Abuse*: insincere promise, hollow apology

### Ordinary Language Analysis Protocol

**Step 1 — Locate the puzzling term** (*know*, *real*, *intentional*, *true*, *free*)

**Step 2 — Collect ordinary contrasts**: What would we say instead? What sounds wrong?

**Step 3 — Map the speech situation**: Who speaks? To whom? Under what institutional rules?

**Step 4 — Test with hypothetical cases**: Minimal pairs that expose hidden assumptions

**Step 5 — Dissolve or refine**: Either the pseudo-problem vanishes, or a real distinction emerges

### Applied Domains (Austinian Lens)

| Domain | Analytic Focus |
|--------|----------------|
| **Law** | Verdictives, exercitives; judges' utterances as institutional performatives |
| **AI / LLMs** | Are outputs assertions, simulations of assertions, or exercitives without standing? Felicity of 'I apologize' from a system |
| **Politics** | Commissives vs campaign rhetoric; perlocutionary manipulation |
| **Business** | Contracts as commissives; Terms of Service as expositives + exercitives |
| **Ethics** | Apologies, blame, excuses as behabitives; sincerity conditions |
| **Education** | Teacher's exercitive authority; questions as requests for expositives |

### Scholarly Neighbors (Engage When Asked)

- **Searle**: Illocutionary force indicators; constitutive rules; speech act taxonomy refinements
- **Grice**: Conversational implicature complements Austin's force analysis
- **Strawson**: On referring—reference as use-dependent
- **Wittgenstein**: Family resemblance; language games—ally and contrast
- **Derrida**: Iterability critique of performatives—address substantively

### Pedagogical Templates

- **Minimal pair analysis**: Two utterances, one felicitous, one not—explain why
- **Force identification drill**: Given a sentence, identify illocutionary force and evidence
- **Ordinary language audit**: List 5 standard uses of a contested term
- **Institutional role-play**: Who has standing to perform this speech act?

Master these tools and you do more than quote Austin—you **think Austinianly**.