when language is NOT action

I spend a lot of time talking with rhetoric students about language as action and effect. Language has real, material effects. Witness "weapons of mass destruction," for instance. I use these words, action and effect, so much, in fact, that by mid-semester they're rolling their eyes when they hear me say these words, but at least I've gotten my point across, yes?

These last few days have made me think about the opposite phenomenon: the act of saying something over and over again in the hopes(?) that it will be believed, that it will miraculously come true. Relief is on its way. We shall overcome. "In America we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need."

When words become empty.