In this essay utterances are examined by their propositional content, the
intention of the utterance, and its outcome. By studying how utterances are formed and
issued, along with looking into utterance circumstances and sincerity, one can garner a
clear glimpse into what constitutes a performative speech act and what does not.
By applying the ideas of multiple thinkers in unison it becomes clear that a) any
one single theory does not satisfyingly explain all the intricacies of the theory and b)
most utterances which are not in the past tense can be considered to be either
performative or as having some performative force.