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Narrative Models of Action and Interaction *
Author(s) -
Beaugrande Robert,
Colby Benjamin N.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1207/s15516709cog0301_3
Subject(s) - narrative , schema (genetic algorithms) , focus (optics) , computer science , action (physics) , cognitive science , narrative structure , epistemology , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , linguistics , psychology , information retrieval , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , optics
This paper explores some issues which a humanlike story system ought to encompass, but which are usually not in the main focus of narrative models since Propp. We argue that knowledge about actions and interactions can account not only for how stories are constructed, but also for why some stories are more interesting and enduring than others. We analyze a traditional English folktale in these terms, and show how classes of surface expressions make recoverable the underlying structures and dependencies that schema‐based understanders comprise.