A Study Of Interpersonal Meaning In English Public Service Advertisements On Environmental Protection From The Perspective Of Systemic-functional Linguistics

Nowadays around the globe the environmental problems are becoming more and more serious. The creation of public service advertisements (PSAs) on environmental protection can make the public realize the existence of the environmental problems and deal with them. These advertisements are the media between the advertisers and the public, reflecting the interaction between the two parts. And the exploration of the interrelationship between the two parts can be dealt with in the field of interpersonal meaning in Systemic-functional Linguistics (SFL), which is applied to analyze the relationship between people as well as the influence of their attitudes and behaviors upon each other.Considering the English PSAs on environmental protection are well developed, the thesis makes an analysis of interpersonal meaning in English PSAs on environmental protection from the perspective of SFL.350English PSAs on environmental protection are randomly selected from the Internet. The thesis analyzes interpersonal meaning from mood system, including the congruent and the non-congruent mood types, modality system, containing the modality’s types, values and orientations, person system, comprising the first, second and third persons, and attitude system, including affect, judgement and appreciation. The thesis adopts the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods to explore how English PSAs on environmental protection realize their interpersonal meaning.The study shows that, in mood system, more congruent mood types, which can help to convey the messages in a clear way, than the metaphorical ones, which can make the messages mildly delivered, appear in the collected data. The two forms of mood types supplement each other to make the messages understood by the public.The advertising expressions of probability appear most frequently, which can reduce the absoluteness. It is also found that more low and median values can soften the tone and more implicit-oriented modality can make the expressions less subjective and less absolute. The appropriate application of modality system can make the messages more acceptable.The advertiser uses person system to shorten his distance with the public. The first and second persons appear often. Some special usages of them can arouse the public’s interest. A few of the third persons also play an important role.In attitude system, attitude resources can be used to increase the acceptance of the messages among the public. Affect and judgement resources are fewer than appreciation resources. Appreciation resources can help to make the messages less subjective. And more positive resources can make the messages more acceptable.The present study can help to broaden the research scope in the exploration of interpersonal meaning from the perspective of SFL. It can also help the advertisers to design appropriate advertising expressions by making use of suitable linguistic elements as well as can help the public to understand the intention of these advertisements so as to actively take actions to solve the environmental problems.