Abstract
Mental Spaces theory, with its sophisticated mechanisms for representing the contents of speech, thought, and perception, opens routes for the exploration of relations between these domains and the ‘‘real’’ world. One of the most intriguing of these relations isperformativity, defined by Searle (1989) as the ability of some descriptions to bring about the described situations in reality. My broader definition of performativity treats it as mental-space blending (in Fauconnier and Turner’s terminology) wherein structure is transferred from a representing space to the space represented. Performative uses of metaphorical representations (pervasive in ritual and magic) are treated alongside literal cases, using our well-developed system for representing metaphor in terms of metal space blends. This approach oAers a general treatment of the ways in which linguistic and non-linguistic representations (e.g., ritual enactments or pictures) are understood to aAect reality.
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