Natural performativity: How to do things with body constraints

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to define performativity as a natural component of human cognition. The notion of performativity has many applications in various fields from performance studies to pragmatics, but in the recent years it has been introduced within cognitive science studies, where it is currently a subject of great debate. A working definition of performativity as a central component of the human mind that determines the relationship between the individual and the world is proposed. This definition is intentionally general, because it works for every species, not only for humans. Performativity, in fact, is a capacity present in all cognitive systems that have a body because it allows the utilization of those cognitive abilities that evolutionary history has delivered to a species. The concept of performativity with a naturalistic and biologically based approach is analysed taking into account both evolutionary continuity and species-specific functions. In conclusion, an application of the natural performativity of language, a uniquely human function characterized by species-specific morphological structures that constitute constraints for language performativity, is proposed.