Author(s)

Yanqing Fang

Corresponding Author

Yanqing Fang

Abstract

Public service advertisement can indicate the relationship between the advertiser and the audience as well as the interaction and negotiation between them. Based on the systemic functional grammar, this research aims to investigate the interpersonal meaning of mood system through tense and voice. In the realization of mood by tenses and voices in public service advertisement, present tense ranks the highest, followed by past tense and future tense is at the third place. Present tense is usually used in the proposals that are beneficial to the audience. The past tense helps the audience realize the important of public service. The future tense is mostly used to show the value of the audience’s activities. In PSA, most of the clauses are written by active voice. Most of subjects of the passive voice clauses are things or events rather human beings.

Keywords

Mood system, English public service advertising, Tense and voice