ystals refer to the prods verbal, at first understood as a sermlbrmal report alleging a crime against the Impenum (as in, e g, Stilgar's Com mentary), yet this definition was immediately objected to by the first legal experts to study the translations Realizing that in every culture legal terminology has erred on the side of over-precision, these experts asked how something could "fall between a loose verbal allegation and a formal charge of crime" (Mahmut al-Saudin, District Magi strafe's Procedures 353, Rakis Ref Cat 11-R3433) In all societies, it was argued, a charge of crime is made or is not made In the legal sense, no status is afforded to muttenngs, rumors, and the like Moreover, research into the most ancient meanings of proces verbal failed to illumi nate the matter It is now established beyond question that the term ongmated in Terran Franzh, yet there (see Peroblcr, 1150) its meaning was precise an authenticated writ ten statement of facts in support of a crimi nal or other charge ' Perobler therefore faced a point of law that seemed anomalous in the history of the Impenum whose members were, as a rule, scrupulous to the point of fanaticism m observing even ihe minutest of formal legalities a term of precise meaning had somehow been deliberately changed to cover the most amorphous of situations, yet the whole legal system used the term so familiarly that none of them bothered to define its new meaning, apparently assuming it would be completely understood And there was another problem despite the adjective customarily applied to it- ' loose," "informal " semtforma!"-the mere mention of a proces verbal was terrifying SmdarTiaron Vladimir Harkonnen was momentarily panicked by the hint chat a proces verbal might have been brought against him (Count Hasimir Fenrmg Confidential Impen al Report 10 192 8 13 Rakis Ref Cat 3-L723), similarly, Aha's proces verbal against the Fedaykm drove that battle-hardened group underground (although in this case, since Alia was Imperial Regent, her report-to herself-was merely a stratagem to mask a tyrannical action) If the proces verbal was not a formal charge of crime why should Jt have been so feared9 Many argued erroneously that the phrase had been mistranslated, since the worst that could succeed such a report would be increased surveillance of the person against whom the proces \erbal had been made The insight that led to Perobler's solution to these problems was his assumption that people like Harkonnen and Aha white aware of the power of words, would worry more about actions He therefore abandoned the umversall; held notion that the proces verbal was a matter of legal procedure, and instead hypothesized that it was a tort-a wrongful action Yet clearly, he reasoned, the proces verbal was something one said, theretore, for words to be actions, they must be a special kind of words called "performatives " PROCfcS VERBAL PROCES VERBAL Perfonnatives have been studied in classes in elementary logic since the time of the ancient Terran philosopher named J.