Abuses

Abuses are breaches of the later two conditions of Austin's conditions of felicity. They are performances that fail to complete a conventional chain of performance proposed by the initial performative utterance. A promise or a bet made without intention of completing the promise -- or made sincerely but then not acted upon subsequently -- would be termed an abuse. Abuses are isolated from 'misfires' in Austin's theory.

See Felicity/Infelicities