Abstract
English public service advertisements are aimed to provide information of social problems and persuade readers to take positive actions. On the basis of Halliday's systemic functional grammar, this paper probes into the interpersonal meaning in mood, modality, and personal pronoun of English public service advertisements. Advertisers prefer to choose three main kinds of mood: declarative, interrogative and imperative. It is found that the main function of declarative is to give information. Interrogative and imperative make texts more interactive, involving readers and attracting their attention. Then the study reveals that advertisers tend to influence readers’ attitudes and behavior through controlling modality. Finally, in PSAs, advertisers prefer to use personal pronouns to establish dialogues with readers, so that, they can create a close atmosphere of communication and narrow the social and psychological distance with readers, and persuade readers to take positive actions. By studying the selection and usage of mood, modality and personal pronouns in discourse, the personal meaning of English PSAs can be better understood and evaluated.
Key words: English public service advertisement, interpersonal function, Functional Grammar, mood, modality, personal pronoun
Contents
1.  Introduction-1
1.1 Definition of public service advertisements-2
1.2 Main content of public service advertisements-2
2.  Demonstration3
2.1 Mood-3
2.1.1 Indicative mood in English PSAs4
2.1.2 Interrogative mood in English PSAs-6
2.1.3 Imperative mood in English PSAs-7
2.2 Modality-8
2.2.1 Type of modality in English PSAs-8            
2.2.2 Value of modality in English PSAs10
2.3 Personal pronouns13   
2.3.1 Inclusive first-person14
2.3.2 Directive second-person14
2.3.3 Objective third-person-15
3.  Conclusion-17
Works Cited-18
Bibliography 19