随着近年来国外高品质及经典图画书的引进出版以及国内原创图画书的发展与图画书阅读在国内的推广，图画书研究已日益成为我国当代儿童文学研究的一个新热点。基于此课题的前沿性，与其它儿童文学类别专题研究相比，国内有关图画书本体的研究可谓不足，系统性的图画书本体研究成果几乎没有，而将图画书表意媒介作为一种整体性的具有其独特内在属性及构成规律的独立对象的研究亦难寻觅。本论文尝试以图画书构造自身所运用的特殊表意媒介为研究对象。在本文中，这种表意媒介被称为“图画书语言”。作为一种独特的艺术形式，图画书将图画和文字结合为一个表意整体建构自身作品。本研究意在儿童文学范畴下探讨图画书表意媒介的整体性本体存在及其内在属性与表意规律，并尝试从这一角度深入认识图画书的本体特性。图画书是一种多方参与的综合性艺术，对图画书表意媒介整体性的研究必有助于深化我们对图画书作为一种独特艺术形式的本体存在的认识和理解，并有益于出版、教育等领域的图画书应用研究，对图画书表意媒介整体性的系统研究因而具有重要的现实意义与价值。论文共分为七部分。引论部分表明了论文的研究对象为图画书所运用以构建自身的表意媒介，阐述了研究目的以及论题的价值与现实意义，并对论题的相关研究现状进行文献综述，且概述了论文的研究思路。第一章主要通过梳理学界既有的一些关于“图画书”的定义以及对图画书表意媒介的认识，对“图画书”和“图画书语言”这两个概念进行辨析，明确了本论文的研究对象。第二章立意探讨分析图画书语言的内部结构特征。通过分析，探寻了图画书语言的三种层次的结构单位，即意素、意象和意象聚合。其中意素为图画书语言的最小结构单位，其实质为具物质性的有色质点。而意象则为图画书语言的基本表意单位，可具有形符和声符，并表达一定的意义。意象聚合为两个和两个以上意象的结合形式，能传达相对完整的意义，形成图画书作品的意义节。第三章主要探讨图画书语言的基本特性。图画书是一种诉诸视觉建构及传达其意义且以表达意义为主要诉求的艺术形式，同时，图画书作为书籍的物质形态亦能参与其作品意义的建构，因而图画书语言主要具备三种基本特性，即视觉性、物质性和表意性。视觉性一节阐述了图画书作品意义建构和传达对视觉的诉求，物质性一节探讨了图画书物质形态“书”的各物质构成因素对图画书作品意义的影响与作用，而表意性一节则重点论述了图画书作品的意义传达。第四章着意于分析图画书语言各结构单位的结合关系及规律，论文将之视为图画书语言的独特语法。通过分析可探察到图画书语言构成单位的结合主要表现出三种形式的基本关系，即汇聚关系、组合关系和串连关系。意素通过汇聚关系形成为图画书作品的实体形态，并在符号层面组合为意象，意象亦通过组合关系形成意象聚合，而意象聚合之间则通过串连关系相结合，实现意义的流动和运作。第五章着重探讨图画书语言的意义表现，论文将图画书语言的意义表现视为图画书语言的语义加以探讨。图画书语言所表达的意义大致表现为意象语义、联想语义、风格语义和完形语义四类，图画书作品的整体意义往往通过这几类意义的融合而得以建构和传达。论文结论部分对本文的论述做了概要梳理与总结，并指出图画书表意媒介研究课题的价值与现实意义。关键词：图画书；儿童文学；语言；表意媒介；图文

ON THE LANGUAGE OF PICTURE BOOKSABSTRACTIn recent years, the noticeable prosperity of children’s picture books’ creation and publishing (importing international high quality children’s picture books as well) in China, undoubtedly calls for a deep understanding on children’s picture books. However, due to the late appearance and development of Chinese modern children’s picture books, the relevant research is considered to be still at the beginning stage in the Chinese children’s literature academic circle. Creation of children’s picture books is regarded as a somewhat new literary phenomenon. And systematic ontological research on children’s picture books is apparently absent.As an important genre of children’s literature, picture books are a very special kind of literary existence. Different from other genres of children’s literature, the meaning of picture books’ content is created and conveyed through the interaction of two media which are words and pictures. And as a special kind of book, picture books’ material existence also contributes to the construction of picture books’ meaning. The dissertation aims to do a structural research on the media that picture books use to create and convey meaning and also intends to find an effective analytic mode to construct picture books’ own analytic theory and scholarly metalanguage. In the dissertation, the media as a whole is named as “language of picture books”.The dissertation is composed of seven parts, which are the introduction, five chapters and the conclusion.The first chapter is the analytic investigation of some definitions of children’s picture books and “the language of picture books”.The second chapter explores the structural components of the language of picture books.The third chapter focuses on the investigation of the basic attributes of the language of picture books, such as its own visual aesthetic characters and material nature. The fourth chapter explores the combination of the structural components of the language of picture books. The last chapter investigates and analyzes the four types of the meaning that the language of picture books usually creates and conveys, which are the meaning of images, the meaning of association, the meaning of style and the meaning of entirety.KEY WORDS: picture books; children’s literature; language; media; imagetext