The occurence of events is an important factor in differentiating between narrative and non-narrative (descriptive) texts.

According to Schmid (2010, 6), one can speak of a narrative in the narrower sense if a text (a) has a mediating narrative voice and (b) if it also includes at least one change of state. Changes of state that have an eventful character seem particularly worth telling. But what is an event from a narratological point of view? It is evident that the two categories are closely related. We can say, with Schmid, "Every event implies a change of state, but not every change of state constitutes an event" (2010, 9). An event can therefore be defined as a change of state that meets one or more additional conditions.

Since early theoretical discussions, there has been a notion that eventfulness (i.e., the conditions that turn a mere change of state into an event in the narrow sense) is both a binary and a scalar property of texts. This means, texts can either have events or not, and these can vary in degree. For Lotman, the occurrence of an event is significantly related to an accompanying (spatial) transgression of a boundary (Lotman 1977, 231–239). Borders, Lotman argues, in literary texts often symbolize other, non-spatial oppositions that are symbolically, morally, or ideologically augmented, but are negotiated within the text through the category of space. For him, a scalar criterion is the probability of a boundary violation: "The less probability that a given event will take place (i.e. the greater the information conveyed by the message concerning the event), the higher the rank of that event on the plot scale" (Lotman 1977, 236). Following Lotman, Schmid (2010, 8–12) has formulated five criteria whose (scalable) givenness distinguishes events from mere changes of state: Relevance, Unpredictability, Persistence, Irreversibility, Non-iterativity. Accordingly, an event exists, or is particularly strong or weak, to the extent in which the change of state it contains is predictable, intense, momentous, irreversible, or unique. In ancient epic, for example, narrative structural forms such as sea storms, battle scenes, and underworld visits have a high degree of eventfulness because they confront the protagonist(s) with life-threatening, extraordinary, or irreversible situations. A typical example is the depiction of Diana taking a bath in the third book of Ovid's Metamorphoses which is disturbed by the suddenly entering Actaeon, – who is eventually transformed into a stag as punishment. On entering the cave of the bathing goddess (intravit, 3.177), Actaeon crosses a 'sacred' boundary and thus triggers an event with serious consequences for him.

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