Actantial model

In structural semantics, the actantial model, also called the actantial narrative schema, is a tool used to analyze the action that takes place in a story, whether real or fictional.^[1]^[2] It was developed in 1966 by semiotician Algirdas Julien Greimas.^[3]^[4]

The model considers an action as divided into six facets, called actants.^[1] Those actants are a combined framework inspired mainly between Vladimir Propp's and Étienne Souriau's actantial theories.^[5]

Greimas took the term actant from linguist Lucien Tesnière, who coined the term in his discussion of the grammar of noun phrases.^[6]

^ ^a ^b Herbert 2006 Tools, Ch.5, Origins and function
^ Herbert 2006 Actantial
^ Greimas, Algirdas Julien [1966] Structural Semantics: An Attempt at a Method
^ Greimas (1973).
^ Venancio, Rafael Duarte Oliveira, Narrative between Action and Transformation: A. J. Greimas' Narratological Models (December 3, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2879907
^ David Herman, Manfred Jahn, Marie-Laure Ryan (2005) Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory, p. 574

[HerbertOrig-1] Herbert 2006 Tools, Ch.5, Origins and function

[HerbertActantial-2] Herbert 2006 Actantial

[3] Greimas, Algirdas Julien [1966] Structural Semantics: An Attempt at a Method

[4] Greimas (1973).

[5] Venancio, Rafael Duarte Oliveira, Narrative between Action and Transformation: A. J. Greimas' Narratological Models (December 3, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2879907

[6] David Herman, Manfred Jahn, Marie-Laure Ryan (2005) Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory, p. 574

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