In sociology, AI and programming language theory, Actants, or more commonly actors, are the principal concern of the actor-network theory.
Actants have a kind of phonemic rather than a phonetic role: they operate on the level of function, rather than content. That is, an actant may embody itself in a particular character (termed an acteur) or it may reside in the function of more than one character in respect of their common role in the story s underlying oppositional structure. In short, the deep structure of the narrative generates and defines its actants at a level beyond that of the story s surface content. Terence Hawkes, Structuralism and Semiotics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 89
