Greimassian Structure of T’boli Animal Tales

Folk narratives are a part of one’s cultural identity. With the changing times, these narratives are in danger of being forgotten and being lost in obscurity. The effort to retrieve and analyze folk narratives is one way of preserving these narratives. So, this paper analyzed the T’Boli Animal Tales using the Structural approach to literary criticism, particularly A.J. Greimas’ Actantial Model, as well as the Axes Model of Louis Hebert which is an adaptation of Greimas’ model. It also determined the actants found in T’boli animal tales, their formation of axes of desire, power, and transmission, and their similarities and differences in terms of the formation of axes. Results revealed that the majority of the animal tales used follow Greimas’ actantial model, as well as Hebert’s axis model. Although there are similarities in terms of their actants and axes, this study concludes that not all T’Boli Animal Tales’ follow Greimas’ and Hebert’s models. Still, these tales can be understood better using the Actantial Model and Narrative Structures proposed by A.J. Greimas, and the Axis Model proposed by Louis Hebert. Keywords: T’Boli Animal Tales, Greimas’ Actantial Model, Qualitative Research, Philippines