Examination of the data structure for the story plot database

Abstract

　In order to digitize structures of stories and to store those into some database, it is promising that the plot, which has been utilized in narratology, becomes a unit of the structures of stories. The plots are composed of the functions of the story, though it is difficult to unify the granularity of those functions. Therefore this paper proposed to define the structures of stories, which include plots, as multi-layer and recursive structure. Further, the actant theory was utilized in order to describe and to pattern more complex relationships of characters in stories. Also it was pointed out that there is the possibility of describing generic and more detail structure of stories, by describing the nature of the relationship between each actants according to purpose of each person, each function in the plot.