Functional Grammar Approaches To English Magazine Public Service Advertising

Today is the age of advertising, which is so prevalent that virtually we cannot ignore its existence, wherever we are and whenever we go. The world and its population are under suffocating bombardment of commercial ads in various forms and will continue to be so, but at an increasingly larger scale. When the public is tired of the hypocritical persuasion of commercials, another type of advertising known as public service advertising (or PSA in short), which plays a critical role in maintaining the welfare of the society, brings fresh air into the extremely profit-driven world of advertising. It is no exaggeration to say that PSAs voice the conscience of the age.The purpose of the thesis is to probe into PSAs in a Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach, since SFG proves highly effective in analyzing various types of texts, such as novels, news reports and features, courts debates, etc. To narrow the scope of the study down, the thesis focuses on the linguistic characteristics of PSA texts, based on a corpus of 30 PSA texts which are mainly chosen from magazines with high reputation and large readership like Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, etc.Prior to the analysis in the Hallidayan metafunctional framework, the thesis introduces the discourse pattern proposed by Hoey and finds out that PSA texts in the corpus are structured as "Problem-Solution" in terms of discourse pattern, with "Problem" and "Solution" as compulsory elements, and thereby are divided into two hemispheres: "Situation + Problem" and "Solution + Evaluation", a division which lays the foundation for the following analyses. From the perspective of SFG, experiential and interpersonal metafunctions are highlighted in the thesis.By examining corpus texts along the double-folded dimension of discourse pattern and metafunctions, the present research produces two important findings. The first one is that the thesis demonstrates a close relationship between the two metafunctional meanings of language and various lexical choices. It is found that in experiential metafunction, material processes are frequently used to provide solutions to various challenges and to urge actions of the audience and that in interpersonal metafunction, statement are commonly used to utter an authoritative voice which is softened by the use of symmetrical references like we/you, and some modality operators and strengthened by the use of other modality operators.The second point to be made in the thesis is more significant in that these metafunctional analyses further reveal the changes over the relationship between advertisers and the audience in the course of advertising. It is found that the "Situation + Problem" hemisphere features a high percentage of low-valued probability modal operators, indicating that advertisers deliberately lower their role status as information-giver in the hope that the lowering of social stance will help them to win the trust of the audience who has the freedom to provide them with financial supports. With PSA texts proceeding from "Situation + Problem" hemisphere to "Solution + Evaluation" hemisphere, the relationship between advertisers and readers is under changes through three phrases. The first phase in which the two parties are roughly equal in status is characterized by negotiation between the two parties, as is embodied by the use of low-valued obligation operator can and low- and medium-valued probability operators. In the second phase, the disparity in power and solidarity enlarges when advertisers adopt as the main mood declarative, which is the typical realization of statement. The prevalence of statement assigns to advertisers the speech role of information-giver whose authoritative voice shows the rise in status. It is on the third phase that the rise in power on the part of advertisers is easily discernible. The voice of imperatives and medium- and high-valued obligation operators is so sonorous that one needn't linguistic expertise to hear clearly. These changes over relationship between advertisers and readers show advertisers' great efforts in order to persuade the audience.The thesis not only shows that SFG is equally effective in analyzing the genre of PSA by providing insights into the communication where PSA texts exhibit their persuasive strength, but also holds some implications in aesthetic appreciation of advertising language and English writing.