Dear Francois,
You ask, “Does anyone have literature reference(s) on the precise meaning, in English and in other languages, of the word ACTANT? I wish to understand how, or if, the term does, or may, convey better the concept of the effects produced by artifacts.”
Actor-Network Theory has taken on a word with precise meanings in grammar and literary theory, but it shifts the meanings slightly.
To develop a more precise description for the way that ANT attempts to describe the effects produced by artefacts, one would have to do a careful analysis of the ANT literature.
In my view, much of the ANT literature avoids that kind of precision. This is made more difficult by the current situation of ANT in many fields. It seems to me that many people who write about actants are intoxicated by the notion that actants possess agency. To speak of chairs and tables asserting their rights, tools that make decisions, or computers that design has a certain frisson, an aroma of excitement. There is nevertheless a difference between that kind of writing and the kind of careful analysis that Klaus Krippendorff has been writing.
This kind of analysis requires careful empirical, epistemological, and ontological inquiry. It’s easy to see how different people use the term “actants” in ANT. Google Scholar yields nearly 16,000 hits for the search “Actor-Network Theory AND actants.” Like you, I’d be curious to see an analysis of precise meanings based on this literature. Many of the Google Scholar hits are available for free download, so it’s possible for anyone subscribing to this list to undertake an analysis.
There is also an immense literature in ordinary social science on how artefacts produce effects. This literature is far larger than the ANT literature. Because the literature is larger, searching it will take time using different sets of search terms, but I imagine the rewards would be greater.
The Oxford English Dictionary provides a precise meaning of the word “actant” in English up to the year 2005. It’s likely that many scholars have sent them exemplars from ANT, but perhaps the OED staff do not yet feel that the usage is clear enough to warrant inclusion. Here are the definitions from the OED:
—snip—
actant, n.
Pronunciation: <https://public.oed.com/how-to-use-the-oed/key-to-pronunciation/>
Brit. /ˈakt(ə)nt/ <https://public.oed.com/how-to-use-the-oed/key-to-pronunciation/>,
U.S. /ˈæk(t)nt/ <https://public.oed.com/how-to-use-the-oed/key-to-pronunciation/>
Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French actant.
Etymology: < French actant (L. Tesnière Esquisse d'une syntaxe structurale (1953) 4 in sense 1 <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/247764?redirectedFrom=actant#eid12175859>; A. J. Greimas Sémantique Structurale (1966) 128 in sense 2 <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/247764?redirectedFrom=actant#eid12175897>) < act- (in action action n. <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/1938#eid19914524>) + -ant -ant suffix1 <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/8163#eid2508846>. Compare German Aktant (1971 or earlier in grammar)
1. Grammar. A noun or noun phrase involved in the action expressed by a verb.
1967 O. S. Kulagina & I. A. Mel'ĉuk in A. D. Booth Machine Transl. v. 161 A circostant separates the predicate group and one of the actants.
1973 Oceanic Linguistics 12 584 With tanumia, the lone actant, semantically an object, nevertheless appears nominalized as a dominant possessive.
2005 G. Lazard in Z. Frajzyngier et al. Ling. Diversity & Lang. Theories i. 12 In many languages, the actant called the subject is characterised by a number of specific morphosyntactic properties.
2. Literary Theory. Any of various narrative roles or functions which may be fulfilled by one or more characters or other entities in a text.
1968 Yale French Stud. No. 41. 105 [Discursive structures] impose the choice of certain operations, like the playing of rôles (contents of the actants), and of ‘archifunctions’ (contents of the functions).
1979 F. Jameson Fables of Aggression ii. 44 Such an entity as this room has clearly become a momentary actant, a surrogate for the heroine herself.
2002 P. Larsen in K. B. Jensen Handbk. Media & Communications Res. viii. 127/2 There is no one-to-one relationship between characters and actants... The same character can have various functions in the narrative, and may therefore fill several actant positions.
—snip—
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Visiting Professor | Faculty of Engineering | Lund University ||| Email [log in to unmask] | Academia https://tongji.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|