Ecological Narratology: 6 Integrating Axes: Narrative Ecology in Action

We have explored four axes of narrative ecology:

1. Construal — what counts as event, state, or participant

2. Relationality — how entities are classified, possessed, and connected

3. Perspective — from whose vantage experience is accessed

4. Orientation — how phenomena are anchored spatially, socially, and discursively

Now we see how these axes interact dynamically to produce coherent narrative worlds. Liora’s forest episode provides a concrete laboratory.

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1. Single Axis in Isolation

Consider construal alone:

Liora bent over the pool. The water rippled.

• The scene is minimally event-focused.

• Without relationality, perspective, or orientation, the narrative feels skeletal; participants and context are underdetermined.

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2. Two Axes: Construal + Relationality

Add relationality:

Liora leaned toward the pool. The creature hovered above it, responding to her presence. Moss and dew shimmered in the reflected light.

• Construal identifies events and participants.

• Relationality situates them in a web of interactions.

• The narrative now has texture and coherence: participants influence each other, creating semiotic depth.

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3. Three Axes: + Perspective

Incorporate perspective:

Liora leaned close, noticing the pool’s subtle shimmer. The creature mirrored her motion, though she did not yet see it fully. Dew glimmered where her gaze landed.

• Perspective aligns attention with Liora.

• The reader inhabits her perceptual and epistemic horizon.

• Narrative tension emerges: what Liora sees, and does not see, structures expectation.

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4. Four Axes: Full Orientation

Add orientation for complete ecological integration:

Liora’s steps pressed lightly into moss; the pool shimmered, reflecting dawn. Dew and leaves quivered. The creature hovered, curious, at the far edge. The forest framed the scene, vast and watchful, each element responding to her presence.

• Construal foregrounds events and participants.

• Relationality links them into an intelligible network.

• Perspective guides attention and access.

• Orientation anchors the entire scene in space, social-relational context, and discursive continuity.

The result is a rich, coherent narrative ecology, showing how all axes coordinate to afford a full story-world.

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5. Semiotic Ecologies and Narrative Possibility

Different languages and semiotic systems license different combinations of axes:

• Some might foreground participant networks over events.

• Others may allow multiple simultaneous perspectives.

• Some may encode orientation implicitly, others explicitly.

This explains why stories are systemically different across languages without invoking deterministic cognition: the narrative possibilities are afforded by the semiotic ecology.

Liora’s forest episode is a controlled example: same “content,” multiple ecological realisations. Each variation is internally coherent, each offers distinct narrative experience.

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6. Implications

• Narrative is ecological, not linear.

• Coherence arises from interaction of construal, relationality, perspective, and orientation.

• Typological differences shape what stories can naturally emerge, how tension is created, and how phenomena are made present.

By observing narrative ecology in action, we can see how semiotic systems pattern the space of possibility, allowing some stories, silencing others, and shaping the texture of lived experience in subtle, powerful ways.

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Next Post: Cross-Linguistic Ecological Comparisons

Having mapped the axes and integrated them, the natural next step is to compare semiotic ecologies across languages, illustrating how typological differences manifest in narrative practice.

We can again use Liora’s forest scene as a constant, showing how English, Salishan, and other systems would realise the same events, participants, and relationships differently.