On The Construction Of Gender Image In Chinese Children’s Literature Discourse

Children’s literature is an important carrier for children to understand society,and the different gender images created in the works have a profound impact on children’s self-gender cognition and gender acquisition,so it is of great social significance to study how children’s literature discourse shapes gender images.From the perspective of linguistic research,this paper divides the discourse narrative language system and the communicative language system.According to the components of events related to narrative roles,this paper selects four dimensions: appellation,action words,adjective and adverbial words and discourse communication.And the paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the six classic children’s literature discourses at the micro level of language,exploring the language means and methods of constructing male and female images in contemporary children’s literature discourses.The semantics of appellation can reflect the gender characteristics of characters.By analyzing the internal semantic characteristics of male and female narrative appellation through semantic characteristics analysis,we can summarize the gender expectations given to characters by writers when constructing characters.The semantic characteristics of male name appellation mainly reflect strong and bold character quality and masculinity,while female appellation mainly reflects beautiful appearance and dignified and quiet temperament.The different gender images of name appellation are consistent with the gender expectations of the society.The semantics of action words are often characterized by strength,speed,degree,etc.,which can show the differences between genders in many aspects.It is found that the semantic features embodied by action verbs related to male narrative roles tend to be strong,fast and heavy,reflecting the strong masculine male image.On the contrary,the action verbs related to female narrative characters tend to reflect the semantic characteristics of low intensity,slow speed and light degree,and the female characters’ "cry" is prominent,shaping the female image of weak crying.Adjective and adverbial words fall into two categories,including adjective words that describe narrative characters and related adverbial words that modify characters’ actions.In the analysis of adjective and adverbial words,the adjective words in shaping gender images is relatively direct,which directly describes the character’s own characteristics,such as appearance,shape,temperament and behavior habits.Related adverbial words indirectly shape gender images by modifying the actions of characters,such as describing the range,intensity,speed,naturalness and accompanying modality of the actions of characters.Discourse communication between male and female narrative roles often reflects the difference in power status of speakers in communication,which is obviously reflected in the discourse process of conversational discourse.Male narrative roles are more active in discourse than female narrative roles,and occupy a dominant position in the discourse process,often expressing negative positions to enhance their own authority.Female characters are often in the position of attachment,seeking male identity in discourse communication,and the discourse power is weaker.Through a detailed study of the language forms of six classic children’s literature discourse,it is found that the discourse construct male and female images with different characteristics,which is consistent with the psychological expectations of the society for male and female images.The research on the construction of gender images in children’s literature discourse radiates to the social level,which can provide reference for schools and parents to select children’s books from the perspective of gender cognition and acquisition.