The enactment of design through language

If designers “engage in a conversation with the situation they are shaping” as Donald Schön theorizes, how is design materialized through these conversations? If language metonymically refers to design by intertwining with designers in an ontological circuit of recognition that harnesses and represents that which can be conversed and said, does language itself participate in the enactment of design? This article introduces the performative aspects of the language of design, aggregation, accumulation, and appraisal. Forms of semantics and grammatical structures of design text are lines of compositions through which these performative aspects enact design practice and actualize the designed work. Reviews of theories of performativity and empirical studies of the language of design show a connection between what is said and written about design/ing and the productive force of language.