Thought: A Journal of Philosophy

Volume 10, Issue 4, December 2021

Peter van ElswykOrcid-ID
Pages 240-248

Reviving the performative hypothesis?

A traditional problem with the performative hypothesis is that it cannot assign proper truth-conditions to a declarative sentence. This paper shows that the problem is solved by adopting a multidimensional semantics on which sentences have more than just truth-conditions. This is good news for those who want to at least partially revive the hypothesis. The solution also brings into focus a lesson about what issues to consider when drawing the semantics/pragmatics boundary.