Atos de fala e a lei
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26512/les.v14i2.9197Keywords:
Atos de fala (pragmáticos); Normas legais; Contratos; sequencialidade.Abstract
The present article endeavors to put the old question of the ‘force of words’ into a pragmatic perspective, especially insofar as the law and legal texts are concerned. Questioning the wisdom of the old adage “Saying it don’t make it so”, I show that words do have an effect (which philosophers and linguists have tried to capture, using the concepts of ‘speech act’ or ‘pragmatic act’), and that the legal constituents of this ‘force’ are precisely what makes contractual acts valid. Here, too, words sometimes may be omitted, or substituted by actions, provided the context allows for it. Based on a few historical and contemporary cases, the article demonstrates furthermore how words indeed make a difference in a variety of legal and other societal contexts. The pragmatic (that is, user-oriented) angle is always paramount, and our words should obey the pragmatic conditions, often called ‘affordances’, of the situation in which they are being uttered.
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