2001'6, p.17
Zelenkova T. V.
A functional statistical analysis of fairy-tales composed by children
(RESUME)

Composing fairy-tales is one of the most productive methods of studying a child's mind successfully applied in psychodiagnostics, psychotherapy and development through instruction. However the method has considerable limitations due to the difficulty of formalization and the absence of realistic criteria for appraising the created text. As a solution the author suggests V.Ya. Propp's functional analytical method, complemented by the notion of the sense load of each function defined on the basis of statistical regularities. The latter allows the investigator to obtain an objective criterion for appraising a fairy-tale - that of cognitive complexity. Seven levels of cognitive complexity of a fairy-tale have been identified; their meanings vary within certain limits for each age bracket. Studying recursive constructions of the fairy-tale being composed can be a promising vista for further functional analysis.