Add to ORKGThe term “performative” is used in at least two different senses. In the first sense, performatives are generatives, i.e. expres- sions by the use of which one creates new deontic states of affairs on the ground of extralinguistic conventions. In the sec- ond sense, performatives are operatives, i.e. expressions which contain verbal pred- icates and state their own utterances. In the article, both these types of expressions are compared to the class of imperatives which are characterized as expressions of the form “Let x see to it that p” and typ- ically express wishes. It is claimed that (1) only these imperatives are generatives which are uttered by deontic authorities, (2) no imperative is an operative sensu stricto; (3) imperative opera...