The terms "performative" and "constative" speech acts were first introduced by the philosopher J.L. Austin in his book "How to Do Things with Words,". In this book, introducing speech act theory, Austin argued that many utterances are not simply descriptive or constative, but are actually performative, in that they are doing something in the world through language.
Performative speech act
A performative speech act is one in which the utterance itself is the action being performed. In other words, the speaker is not simply making a statement about the world, but is actually performing something in the world through their words. Examples of performative speech acts include making promises, giving orders, making apologies, declaring something and performing ceremonies such as marriage. The performative aspect of the speech act lies in the fact that the utterance is not simply describing an action, but is actually performing that action.
Constative speech act
A constative speech act, on the other hand, is one in which the speaker is making a statement that describes a state of affairs in the world. Is is a saying which states how the world is. Examples of constative speech acts include making assertions, describing objects or events, and providing information. The constative aspect of the speech act lies in the fact that the utterance is describing a state of affairs, rather than performing an action. However, constative speech act is bu no means powerless since it has the ability to shape our understanding of reality.
It is important to note that not all speech acts can be neatly categorized as either performative or constative. In fact, many speech acts can have both constative and performative elements. For example, the statement "I promise to be there on time" contains both a constative element (the description of the promise) and a performative element (the act of making a promise).