Fundamentals of Communication and Narrative Structure

Elements of Communication

• Transmitter: Transmits the information, prepares and sends a message to the recipient.
• Message: Sequence of signs that the issuer prepares and sends to the caller.
• Recipient: The ideal receiver to receive the signal.
• Receiver: Receives the message and interprets it.
• Channel: Physical medium by which the message is interpreted.
• Code: A set of signs and rules used by the sender to create the message.
• Situation or Context: Circumstances or events affecting how the transmitter and receiver understand the message.

Forms of Communication

Verbal communication (signs are the words) / nonverbal (without words, gestures, etc.).

Description of Characters

Physical, psychological portrait.

Description of Space

Location: Place where the action occurs (interior, exterior (urban or natural)).

Perspective: How things are seen depending on the situation.

Print (Feeling/Atmosphere): The feeling conveyed.

Narrative

A sequenced number of actions performed by characters in a place over a certain time.

Narrative Elements

• Characters
• Action
• Time
• Space
• Narrator

Structure of Action

• Approach: Characters are introduced, and the conflict is seen.
• Node: The conflict unfolds; what the protagonists do to achieve their purpose is told.
• Outcome: The result is seen—whether what was intended was reached or not.

* Not all texts have this structure; some stories start from the node (in medias res), or at the end (in extreme res), or may have a particular outcome, such as an open ending.

The Narrator

The entity who tells about events involving certain characters.

Types of Narrator

• Internal: Lives the events. Two types:
  • Protagonist: Autobiography in the first person.
  • Witness: Lives the events but is not the main character.
• External: Does not live the events but knows about them.
  • Omniscient: Knows all feelings...
  • Objectivist: Limited knowledge.

Values (Pronominal/Verbal)

These relate to how pronouns function with verbs:

• Reflective: "Himself" (Direct Object (CD) or Indirect Object (CI)).
• Reciprocal: "Each other" (CD or CI). Variant: the + it [with the verb].
• Impersonal: There is nothing to take the action (e.g., "we speak...") (Impersonal marker).
• Passive Reflective: Can be switched to passive voice (e.g., "the lights") (Passive reflective marker).
• Pronominal Value: The pronoun must combine with the verb (e.g., "I'm venting").