An A-level English language analysis of Julia Donaldson's children's book the Gruffalo.

1. Beth Graham
&
Mark Chaney Baxter

2. Key Linguistic Features
Direct Speech - The book consists of many animals talking with
the protagonist (the mouse) which acts as a grammatical and
rhetorical patterning device.
The book itself is very cyclical in terms of narrative meaning the
mouse has very similar confrontations with each animal, with
more appropriate adjectives or verbs being applied each time.
Underground house Treetop house Logpile house
The entire story is orientated around the meeting of the mouse
and the gruffalo in the mid point. Around this the story takes a
symmetrical structure as demonstrated by the encounters with
the fox, owl and snake.

3. Phonological Devices - With so much dialogue between the characters,
phonology is important to maintain the child’s attention.
Rhyme - Throughout the story, rhyming couplets are a common linguistic
feature - house/mouse said/fled good/wood lake/snake claws/jaws -
Alliteration - terrible tusks, terrible teeth, deep dark wood etc
Q&A Complex - Throughout the meetings various questions are exchanged
between characters “Where are you going to, little brown mouse?” for
example. By introducing these questions and answers, children will also be
encouraged to join in when reading aloud/role play, linking to CDS.
Use of Tenses - The majority of the book is written in present tense as this is
easier for younger children to understand, however
there is an example of the past tense “and away he sped.”
By conjugating an irregular verb it demonstrates the next

4. Significance of Characters
The mouse is the main protagonist of the story. Mice usually are associated
with weakness and their small size, this makes them unlikely heros. However
children could easily relate to the mouse in the story as the other characters
look down on it and assume they are far superior, but in the end the mouse
outsmarts all of the other characters.
The fox, owl and snake are all predators and this is reflected in their speech as
they use declaratives and exclamatives unlike the mouse that uses
questions to outsmart each creature.
Orange eyes, purple prickles, black tongue, terrible tusks/claws/jaws, knobbly
knees, turned out toes and poisonous nose - premodifying adjectives used
to describe the Gruffalo.
“I’m the scariest creature in this wood!” -

5. Related Acquisition Theories
● Donaldson uses synonyms of certains words repeated through the story, for
words such as ‘tea’ she uses the synonyms ‘come and have tea’, ‘come for a
feast’. Skinner’s behaviourist theory suggests children acquire language
through imitation, by hearing synonyms of words this can in turn help broaden
choices of vocabulary.
●

6. Any CDS Features and Role of the Reader
Graphology and layout - In most cases the picture is placed on the left hand page of
the double spread, this encourages children to look at it first. This give them
context on what they are about to read, also known as text-image cohesion. This
goes against the new method of synthetic phonics being taught in schools.
Intonation - Children use an exaggerated ‘singsong’ intonation, which helps to
emphasise key words and exaggerate the differences between questions,
statements and commands - Where are you meeting him? Here, by the rocks.
Repetition - A very common feature within the story, it highlights the main plot and
reminds the child of the key mystery of the Gruffalo - A gruffalo? What’s a
gruffalo? A gruffalo! Why, didn’t you know? - This dialogue is used with all 3
animals, the use of interrogatives and exclamatives to model turn-taking
Social Niceties/Politeness Strategy - The Q&A complex, hello and goodbye and

7. Relevant Contextual Features
● Mice are common throughout children’s literature, this could be because mice
can be related to for children due to their small size and vulnerable
characteristics.
● While it seems strange that the fox doesn't immediately kill the mouse as
there seems no reason for it not to do so, the fact the fox invited the mouse
round for tea exemplifies a politeness strategy that is being taught to children.
Furthermore this is followed by an arguably hyper polite adverbial premodifier
‘terribly’ in the utterance ‘it’s terribly kind of you’. In turn this interaction not
only presents politeness strategies but teaches about question and answer
interactions and turn taking.

8. ● Notably, the adjective terrible is used both as the aforementioned adverbial
modifier and as an adjective, this could help children understand how a root
word can be changed to give different meanings.
● The book is laid out so that the text is on the left and the writing on the right.
This encourages children to read from left to right as the eye is initially
diverted to the left to look at the pictures.