Study of the Actant's Reference in The Seven Adventures of Rostam

Different languages take benefit of different referential ways to trace out the narrative actants. These ways include deletion of reference, implicit reference of verb inflexion, using unbounded pronouns such as personal pronouns and demonstratives, and complete noun phrases. The choice of each, reflects the intention of the writer in displaying the position of actants and emphasizing the function of some events. The present article follows Levinson’s model to determine various ways of actants’ reference, methods of introducing the major and minor references, and the manner of emphasis on actants in a story of Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāme (Book of Kings) entitled “The Seven Adventures of Rostam”. The findings of the article prove that verb inflexion and noun phrase play more important roles in displaying respectively the frequency of major and minor actants of reference. In addition, bounded pronouns have been remarkably used for referencing both major and minor actants.