ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how performative speech acts take place in three different mediums: in speech, in writing, and in electronic communication. It considers the history of performativity in changing linguistic and social relations brought about by the shift from orality to literacy, and details challenges facing performatives that have accompanied the rise of electronic means of communication and increased frequency of legal transactions and interactions at a distance. B. Danet's arguments prompt fundamental questions about how legal performativity relates to linguistic medium. Before widespread literacy, in oral legal culture, spoken contracts and associated rituals were the norm. With the rise of literacy, a gradual shift took place towards more frequent use of, and greater status accorded to, written documents, including contracts. This shift reflects a changing commercial environment and increased protection measures put in place for consumers. Seventeenth-century English law required a large number of contracts to be made in writing.
