Actant is, in
the narratology of A. J. Greimas, one of six basic categories of fictional role
common to all stories. The actants are paired in binary opposition:
Subject/Object, Sender/Receiver, Helper/ Opponent. A character (or acteur) is
an individualized manifestation of one or more actants; but an actant may be
realized in a non-human creature (e.g. a dragon as Opponent) or inanimate
object (e.g. magic sword as Helper, or Holy Grail as Object), or in more than
one acteur, Adjective: actantial.