I Swear...OHH REALLY!?

How many times in your life do you think you've said the performative utterance...I SWEAR? Matter of fact, how many times do you think you said it in the last month or week? There are several entities that the word swear holds alone. Swear could be defined as a term cognate to such terms as promise or vow. An example would be I swear to love wholeheartedly or I swear he took it. We would typically find these examples in marriage vows or oaths. Another similar association would be to swear from a facetious or serious standpoint. An example would be I swear I will hit you if you don't stop. This example could arise in day to day conversations with friends or loved ones. A last association could be I swear as a way of seeking acceptance or consent. An example of this could be I swear to God.

I was perusing youtube and I came across this interesting video from the show The Big Bang Theory were Leonard embarrasses himself in front of Dr. Pimpton. He insists on seeming highly intellectual and fails the minute he sees Dr. Pimpton due to being overtly nervous. In aims of alleviating his embarrassment he says, "I swear to God, im smart."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PwMWyu8BcU

This example is a performative utterance because we literally see Leonard not only saying I Swear, but we all see him performing the action of swearing. Were not indeed sure if Leonard is telling the truth or not, but what we can observe is his intention. Austin says, "In the particular case of promising, as with many other performatives, it is appropriate that the person uttering the promise should have a certain intention." (11) Leonard's intention is to seek verification either in his roommate or Dr. Pimpton that he is intelligent, although his serious of actions suggest otherwise. Being a huge fan of Dr. Pimpton's writings, we see how her presence makes him nervous which in return causes him to appear dumb. Since Leonard's intention is good his performative utterance is an example of an felicitous or happy sentence.

 We swear constantly no matter the extremities of the situation or problem. Why do we do this?Are we that desperate to come across as believable, and if we are already telling the truth, does saying "I Swear" help to validate our truths? Adding God to the end of the saying does nothing but remotely show a more intense need for validity especially since there is a strong connotation with God and truth. I think we definitely find ourselves in plenty of situations similar to Leonard where we say this performance utterance. I personally try to limit swearing both literally and figuratively, but its become such a passive and common saying in society today that we all say it sometimes unconsciously.