Actantial Model Research Articles

You never fake alone. Creative AI in action

ABSTRACT Creative AI (notably GANs and VAEs) can generate convincing fakes of video footage, pictures, graphics, etc. In order to conceptualize the societal role of creative AI a new conceptual toolbox is needed. The paper provides metaphors and concepts for understanding the functioning of creative AI. It shows how the role of creative AI in relation to FAT ideals can be enriched by a dynamic and constructivist understanding of creative AI. The paper proposes to use Greimas’ actantial model as a heuristic in the operationalization of this type of understanding of creative AI.

Analysis of Exhibition Storytelling of Major Ethnic Museums in Singapore: Focused on Four Heritage Centres and Peranakan Museum

싱가포르는 지정학적 입지 덕분에 인근 대륙에서 많은 이주민들이 몰려들어 인구를 구성했다. 1819년 영국에 의해 개항이 되면서 중국계, 말레이계, 인도계, 유라시안계 등 4대 주요 민족의 거주지를 구분해 배치한 정책은 지금도 유지되고 있으며, 모두가 섞여 지내는 ‘멜팅 팟’이 아니라 이른바 ‘서로 투과되면서도 각자 뚜껑이 덮인 민족성’이라 불리는 다민족, 다문화 사회를 유지하는 노선을 지키고 있다. 이에 따라 민족의 자부심을 표출하는 도구로서의 뮤지엄인 ‘헤리티지 센터’를 각 민족별로 설립했으며, 이들 4대 민족과 현지인이 결합해 생겨난 혼혈 민족도 독자적으로 ‘페라나칸 뮤지엄’을 세웠다. 뮤지엄은 전시를 통해 의도를 전달한다. 관람객의 동선을 고려해서 전시물의 수와 순서를 조정하는 작업은 의도에 따라 요소들을 재배치해서 이야기에 공감하게 만드는 스토리텔링과 유사한 면이 있다. 이에 본 연구는 싱가포르의 5개 민족별 뮤지엄의 전시 스토리텔링을 서사기호학을 통해 분석함으로써 그 속에 숨은 전략을 밝혀내고자 했다. 방법론으로는 그레마스가 주창한 서사 프로그램, 서사 도식, 행위소 모델, 기호 사각형을 사용했다.Singapore s geopolitical location has resulted in a large population of migrants from nearby continents. After the port was opened by the British in 1819, the policy of dividing and inhabiting the residences of four major ethnic groups, including Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian, is still maintained. It is not a “melting pot,” where everyone is mixed, but maintains a multiethnic and multicultural society called “permeable and canopied ethnicity”. As a result, the “Heritage Centre,” a museum that expresses pride of each ethnic group, was established behind one another, and the mixed-race people created by combining these four ethnic groups with local people independently established the “Peranakan Museum”. Museums communicate their intentions through the exhibition. Adjusting the number and order of exhibits in consideration of the audience s movements is similar to storytelling process, in which elements are relocated according to the intention to make the readers empathize with the story. This paper tried to find out the strategy behind the exhibition storytelling of five ethnic museums, four Heritage Centres and Peranakan Museum in Singapore through structuralist narrative semiotics. The methodologies used were narrative program, narrative scheme, actantial model and semiotic square advocated by structuralist semiologist A. J. Gremas.

Implementing self-service technologies: not without competition!

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of self-service technologies (SST) in two competitors and unravel the process of change in two related setups, offering a comparison as well as an association of cases.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on two extensive case studies of SST adoption by leading retailers in a Western European country. The analysis is based on a material-discursive approach using Greimas actantial model to identify actors’ roles in the implementation process.FindingsResults highlight the key role of technology and organizational identity as legitimizers of the change process. The findings also emphasize the role of competition in justifying change.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the specific situation of the market in the country of study (both retailers share 70 percent of the grocery market), this research offers a textbook example of the role of competition in technological change. This helps to understand the role of competition in technological change.Originality/valueThis study explores the implementation of SST in two competitors and unravels the process of change in two related setups, offering a comparison as well as an association of cases.

Analysis of Actantial Model in Suzanne Collins’ "The Hunger Games"

This study aims to analyze plot structure in Collins’ The Hunger Games. There are several questions that researcher wants to find, what the elements of plot are, how do the elements of plot compose the plot structure of the story, and what kind of plot is applied in the novel. This study is a qualitative analysis by applying A.J. Greimas approach. The data were collected by reading, identifying, interpreting and analyzed using the approach and theories which used in this study by using actants. The result of this study were the elements of plot consist of beginning, problem of the story, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. To find out the main plot structure, this study classifies the function of each character into six actants, they are sender, receiver, subject, object, helper and opponent. Finally, the researcher concluded what kind of plot and how the ending of the novel is. The plot of the novel is dramatic or cronological plot because the story through in chronological order. In addition, the novel is closed plot because the problem of the story is solved.
 Keywords: Actant, Greimas, Plot, Sructuralism

Actantial Insights: Making Sense of Sport for Development Performance Account Management

The purpose of this paper is to improve one proven method for understanding the management of performance accounts. This is important as there is currently a need for obtaining insights on how, what, and why performance accounts are used in both for profit and non-profit organisations in general, as well as in the more specific field of sport for development. To this end, I propose to add a second move to how previous management research operationalised Greimas and Courtés’ actantial model. A case study that ‘test-drives’ the two combined moves completes this study and raises important ethical questions regarding the translation of readers into actors through manipulation and sanctioning.

Identity construction in advertising

Abstract This paper presents a qualitative and descriptive study of textual genre, based on the epistemological concept of Socio-Discursive Interactionism. As a study concerning language and identity, it focuses on identity construction of the bank, its customers, and products in seven Portuguese bank pamphlets. Being aware of the pamphlets’ multimodal nature, the author employs the analytical model to examine both their verbal and non-verbal components. The model incorporates four theoretical approaches: the notion of personal deictic markers proposed by Socio-Discursive Interactionism, Greimas’ actantial model, symbolic attribute and suggestive processes, as well as the ideational and interpersonal functions proposed by the Grammar of Visual Design. The analysis presents three-fold conclusion. Firstly, the three major stakeholders’ identity in the pamphlets under analysis is multimodally constructed. Secondly, construction of the said identity is both denotative and connotative. Thirdly, besides relating advertising ideology in general, such identity construction also incorporates social meaning of the three major textual participants in the data already analyzed.

Actantial Narrative Schema in Emergency Response Process Modeling for Aircraft Fires

Analyzing the emergency response process and time characteristics after aircraft fires is extremely important for airport safety. Due to nonprocess-related elements, the Petri net model of the emergency process is generally complex and difficult to revise and expand. In this study, the actantial model was used to analyze the semantic structure of emergency actions in the Petri net emergency process model, and the actantial-timed Petri net (A-TPN) hybrid model was proposed for problem solving. The emergency response process of aircraft fires was analyzed as a case study to explain the application steps of the A-TPN hybrid model. First, the types of elements should be divided into process-related elements and nonprocess-related elements. Process-related elements include status elements and narrative elements, which are equivalent to the places and transitions in the Petri net model. Second, the workflow constructed by the status and narrative elements is converted into a Petri net. An actantial model is used to analyze the semantic structure of emergency response action narratives. Third, according to the analysis of the actants of the helper and the opponent, emergency action time characteristics are considered to construct the A-TPN hybrid model and analyze the time performance of the emergency response process. In this way, an emergency response plan can be analyzed and promoted for smart development.

Actantial Models in the Owl and the Pussy-cat: A Narrative Scheme on Poem

The study entitled "Actantial Model in The Owl and The Pussy Cat by Edward Lear: A Narrative Scheme on Poem " revealed a narration scheme to find out three models in narration text, namely the function model, action model, and narration model realized in the poem. The approach used to solve the problem is a structuralism approach by using Greimas' Actant theoretical base. The method of data collection in this study is objective literary research. Presentation of data processing is a report using the qualitative description design. The benefits of this study are expected to be one of the developments in literary studies, especially the study of poetic literary works for future students, teachers, researchers and literary critics. The results of this study are the discussion of narration schemes, which consist of the functional model, action model, and narration model of the poem.

Notes for an econarratological theory of character

AbstractScientists and scholars in multiple fields have been discussing the current geological epoch under the heading of the “Anthropocene” – an era marked by the planetary impact of human activities (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000). The epistemological shift brought about by this notion exposes the latent anthropocentrism of narrative practices, raising a challenge taken up by narrative theorists such as Erin James (2015) and Alexa Weik von Mossner (2017) in the context of an “econarratology.” In this article, I examine the prime suspect for anthropocentrism in narrative – namely, the notion of character as intrinsically human-like. My point of departure is A. J. Greimas’s (1976) actantial model of narrative, which I revisit and revise in light of work in the field of ecolinguistics (Goatly 1996). I thus explore five strategies through which narrative may integrate nonhuman characters that challenge both anthropocentrism and the subject-object binary that anthropocentrism entails. I exemplify these strategies by discussing contemporary novels that deal with the Anthropocenic entanglement of humanity and the nonhuman world.

Sharing risk experiences of polydrug use on YouTube

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss what kinds of messages about the risks of polydrug use are mediated in YouTube video blogs and on what kinds of norms and values do the vloggers base these messages.Design/methodology/approachThe data consist of 12 YouTube videos where vloggers share their own experiences of the risks and harms of polydrug use. In the analysis, the actantial model of Greimas’ theory of structural semiotics was applied.FindingsTwo main types of videos were identified – sobriety and controlled use – where polydrug use has different meanings. In sobriety videos, polydrug use is presented as the heavy use of multiple substances. In the videos dealing with controlled use, polydrug use is taken as the combining of certain substances. Whereas the sobriety videos emphasized total abstinence from all substances due to their destructiveness, the videos about controlled use emphasized risk awareness when combining substances. Despite modern digital media and a new generation operating in this space, the messages of the risks of polydrug use mainly repeat those of familiar discourses.Originality/valueThis paper offers an analytical insight into the ways in which the risks of polydrug use are conceptualized in a YouTube context that is increasingly gaining a foothold among the youth. Greimas’ actantial model offers a fruitful tool to find semiotic meanings that hide under the surface. The model has not been applied in previous drug research.

MODEL AKTAN GREIMAS DALAM NOVEL MENCARI PEREMPUAN YANG HILANG KARYA IMAD ZAKI

The aim of this research is to discover the structure of fabula within the novel of Mencari Perempuan Yang Hilang. The method used in the research was narratology. Data is collected using library. Research is analyzed based on the theory of actantial model by Greimas. The result shows if the novel has six actants as suggested by Greimas which are subject, object, sender, receiver, helper, and opponent.

The character’s visual research of transforming actantial model under storytelling

The character’s visual research of transforming actantial model under storytelling

Requests for Help in a Multilingual Professional Environment Testimonies and Actantial Models

AbstractProfessional multilingual environments using English as a lingua franca are prone to imbalances in communication, linguistic insecurity and rising tension. Non-native English speakers develop avoidance strategies in order to lessen their apprehension. To overcome these imbalances, this research aims to understand the relationships formed around languages focusing on the dynamics of integration and the requests for help. Guided by the actantial models of Greimas (1966), this qualitative study employs semiolinguistics and discourse analysis, including 19 narrative interviews with employees of Airbus and UNESCO in Hamburg, Germany in 2013. This methodology draws on actors connected through relationships of power and/or collaboration. The actantial models applied seek linguistic input through designational paradigms, shifters and modal occurrences. The actantial models illustrate how a good language competence provides a better understanding of one’s direct as well as passive environment. The learning process is shown to be a conduit to integration. The actantial model and discourse analysis shed light on the complex situation of multilingual communication settings by highlighting the influence of individuals’ linguistic skills. As a matter of fact, depending on the role of each individual in a given situation, lending a helping hand sometimes equates to upsetting the balance.

Sanctioning, qualifying, and manipulating: dramatic phases in president’s letters

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to better understand the management of accounts that sport for development (SFD) agencies provide.Design/methodology/approachA recognized methodology for analyzing narratives is mobilized to collate a longitudinal sample of one agency’s president’s letters. Using Greimas’s actantial model as a framework, this study analyzes role allocation through president’s letters.FindingsThe analysis of empirical data demonstrates the managerial functions of sanctioning and qualifying organizational performance and manipulating current, as well as potential, partners into becoming actors in the studied network.Originality/valueThis study submits that a new typology and associated roles are needed for one categories of actors. Redefining the destinator category of actors previously used in management literature with a new sender label is proposed. Adjusting our view on the roles given to actors in this category demonstrates new meaning and intent embedded in president’s letters.

Image, Text and Malaria: Creative Production of a Comic Book

The comics medium is a powerful tool for communication. It employs the language of both text and images. The placement, interrelationship and transition of panels, speech balloons, gutters, lines, script and picture plane are some of the elements that evoke a sense of time and place in comics. The success of comics as an effective medium depends on experiences common to both the creator and audience. In the light of this understanding of the language of comics, and theorisation regarding the ‘production’ of culture, this article analyses the creation procedure of a comic book made to communicate health messages among schoolchildren under a health project run by the directorate of Vector Borne Disease Control Programme in India. Designing Communications 2 2 Name changed. I have used pseudo names for all the private institutes and professionals. , a private agency contracted by the government for its public health programmes, became the site for this production process. The production involved various ‘actants’ 3 3 A. J. Greimas (1983) developed the actantial model where he talked about six actants or facets that define a narrative algorithm. These actants include the subject, the object, the sender, the receiver, the helper and the opponent. This model was further used by Bruno Latour and others in the development of actor–network theory (widely known as ANT) where the focus shifted from action to systems or networks. from the field. It was also constrained by the limits set by the ‘genre’, hence a specific art world. I call the production of such a comic book a ‘creative production’ because it involves a dynamic interplay between the artists’ creativity and the bureaucratic boundaries of the profession of advertising. Following Howard Becker’s idea that artistic production is collective, I describe the detailed contribution of major actors involved in the process of comic book production.

A Study on Character of <Doggabi: The Lonely and Great God>

이 논문은 전통서사에 나타나는 도깨비를 소재로 창작된 드라마 <도깨비>를 김신 캐릭터를 중심으로 분석하여 성공적인 드라마 창작을 위한 캐릭터의 요건을 살피고 그 서사적 의미를 고찰하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 최근 구미호를 비롯하여 전통서사의 소재들을 활용한 작품들이 다수 창작되는 점을 고려할 때 <도깨비>는 오늘날의 시청자들에게 설득력 있게 수용될 수 있는 요소들에 대한 모범적 사례가 될 것이다. 이를 위해 우선 전통적인 도깨비에 대한 전반적인 연구 성과를 살펴보고 <도깨비>가 전통적인 도깨비를 고유성과 참신성이라는 이중적 전략에 기반을 두고 창조하였음을 분석하였다. 김신 캐릭터는 도깨비에 대한 왜곡된 이미지를 바로잡음과 동시에 염력과 공간 이동 등 현대적 판타지의 성격을 도입하고 CG의 활용 등을 통해 TV드라마에 걸맞은 미학을 성취하고 있다. 다음으로 김신 캐릭터는 명시성과 재현성, 유비 등 서사적 요소들을 적절히 활용하여 극의 흐름에 있어 긴장과 이완을 조절하고, 서스펜스 기법을 활용하여 극의 흥미를 이어나간다. 또한 김신을 중심으로 한 원조자와 대립자의 관계를 극적 반전을 일으키고 이를 통해 작품의 주제를 구현하는데 이를 행위소 모델을 통해 분석하고 그 의미를 고찰하였다.The purpose of this paper is to examine the requirements for a successful creation of dramas and the epic meanings and implications involved based on the analysis of Kim Shin, the main character of the popular drama <Doggabi> produced with Doggabi, a legendary goblin that frequently appears in Korean traditional narratives and stories, used as a key drama material. In consideration of the fact that increasing number of dramas have been recently produced with traditional narrative materials such as ‘Gumiho’, a legendary fox with nine tails, <Doggabi> is likely to be a best practice case for elements that can be well received by TV viewers today. For this, I have examined a wide range of research materials and outcomes as to the Korean Doggabi and analyzed and found that <Doggabi> has been created based on a dual strategy of uniqueness and authenticity of Doggabi. The main character Kim Shin has been quite successful in introducing the characteristics of a creative modern fantasy such as psychokinesis and space movement and achieving the aesthetics suitable to a TV drama through the use of computer graphics technology while correcting the distorted image of Doggabi. Next, the character Kim Shin has brilliantly controlled the tension and relaxation throughout the flow of the drama by properly utilizing a variety of narrative elements, including explicitness, reproducibility, and analogy and kept viewers entertained with the use of suspense technique. In addition, an analysis has been conducted on the dramatic twist of the relations between the protagonist and antagonist with focus on Kim Shin and its role in implementing the theme through the actantial model, followed by the contemplation of the relevant meanings and implications.

Helpers and Opponents in Entrepreneurial Identity Construction

The objective of this article is to study the narrative construction of entrepreneurial identity. Our focus is on entrepreneurial identity work and personal growth stories in a global business context, an approach that has been largely negletted in previous studies. We present a study of narratives told by Finnish startup entrepreneurs who operate in Silicon Valley, USA, in order to reveal entrepreneurs’ identity work and personal growth stories in an international context. Using Greimas’ actantial model, semiotic square, and tests, we are able to map out the existence, influence and fluctuations of supporting and hindering factors in the entrepreneurs’ identity construction. The results show that four main narrative types are used with specific implications on entrepreneurial identity. Through identifying and revealing actants in different narrative types, we contribute a nuanced understanding of processes and forces bearing on identity construction. Greimas’ qualifying, decisive, and glorification tests allow us to include temporal aspect in the analysis and follow the identity construction as the stories move on.

Interpreting “The Snow Queen”: A comparison of two semantic universes

The article compares the famous fairy tale “The Snow Queen” by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen with a Soviet play of the same title by Evgenij Schwartz. Schwartz changed the original ideas and narrative structure of Andersen’s complex and religious text in order to make the play more attractive, spectacular and relatable for Soviet viewers. With the help of A. J. Greimas’ actantial model and semiotic square, the article tries to distinguish and analyse the discursive transformations of the source text in the process of adaptation.

¿Qué es la verdad? ¿Qué es la ficción? Memorias movilizadas en la película Perro come perro

Este artículo se propone explorar cuáles fueron las memorias movilizadas sobre el fenómeno de la violencia contemporánea en la película colombiana Perro come perro, del director caleño Carlos Moreno, estrenada en el 2008. A partir de los aportes teóricos de Pécaut, Todorov y Halbwachs, se analiza una de las películas más discutidas mediáticamente en el país, entre los años 2003 y 2013. La memoria es abordada como un hecho social colectivo que expresa las elucubraciones que han realizado diferentes grupos sobre situaciones que les han afectado, como se observa en el intento reciente del cine colombiano de ficción por reelaborar este fenómeno. El cine, en cuanto producto cultural, constituye un vehículo de la memoria al construir y comunicar relatos sobre el pasado vivido. Este ejercicio de rememoración está atravesado por los usos del pasado en el presente, a través de una selección consciente e inconsciente de qué y cómo recordar.En vista de que la ficción es considerada lenguaje de la memoria, resulta imperativo entender cómo los grupos detrás de las producciones cinematográficas ponen en escena sentidos, tramas que consideran legítimas y verdaderas para ser contadas, creando narrativas sobre las realidades que experimentan. Al ser la unidad de análisis un producto cinematográfico, se adopta una metodología interdisciplinar, compuesta por el modelo actancial de Greimas y Martín Serrano, y un modelo propio inspirado en Goffman sobre los personajes e identificadores, a partir de los cuales se describen los marcos sociales evocados en la película; se identifican las identidades, objetos y lugares; se elaboran sus programas narrativos y se establecen los tipos de memorias movilizadas. Entre los hallazgos más interesantes está la experiencia mágico-religiosa como uno de los hilos narrativos fundamentales de la historia. La película apela a una de las metáforas emblemáticas de la violencia en Colombia, en la que el conflicto se vive y se explica desde la intervención de fuerzas sobrenaturales, eliminando los atributos sociales de quienes hacen la guerra. El conflicto aparece como un recurso espectacular y mítico que debe ser valorado por su carácter melodramático y anecdótico.

그레마스 행위소 모델을 통해 본 기업의 CSR스토리텔링 전략-현대자동차 CSR홈페이지를 중심으로

그레마스 행위소 모델을 통해 본 기업의 CSR스토리텔링 전략-현대자동차 CSR홈페이지를 중심으로