Propp's Functions Recognized in the Children's Perceptions of the Fairy Tales

摘要

Vladimir Propp is a Russian structuralist who explored the Russian folk tales in order to determine the characters who undertook the main roles specified in the fables of the tales. He derived 31 functions of the roles in the Russian tales that were later generalized with other folk tales originating from different parts of the world. The aim of this paper is to explore the pupil's perceptions of Propp's functions in tales without their being exposed to any teacher's impact in that field. The main question posed is whether the pupil's perceptions of the Propp's functions depend on pupils’ age and which Propp's functions are most frequently recognized by primary school pupils. 957 pupils of different age groups were included in the research sample. The results were drawn and compared among these different age groups on different tales previously read and discussed.