Difference between revisions of "Advertisement"

Revision as of 11:07, 8 July 2009

The forms ad and advert are both informal abbreviations for the noun advertisement, the former more usual in American, the latter in British, English. Avoid them both in academic writing. Write all four syllables of the full word.

The stress in the noun advertisement falls on the second syllable - 'ad VERT-is-ment' SAMPA: /@dv"ErtIzm@nt/ (or in more careful speech SAMPA: /{dv"ErtIzm@nt/). There is a not uncommon pronunciation of advertisement (at least in the north of England) where the stress falls on the third syllable, whose vowel (like the third vowel in the verb) sounds like 'I' - 'ad-vert-EYES-ment' SAMPA: /{dvEr"taIzm@nt/. This pronunciation should be avoided in academic circles where RP is spoken. In the verb 'to advertise', the stress is on the first syllable, and the vowel in the third syllable has the sound of 'I': 'AD-vert-eyes' SAMPA: /"{dvEtaIz/.

There is also a verb 'to advert' which is very acceptable in academic circles. (It exists; and therefore spellcheckers will not stop you from using the abbreviation 'advert' when you mean advertisement.) The acceptable 'to advert [to]' means 'draw the reader's attention to', 'to refer to'. This verb is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable - 'ad-VERT' SAMPA: /{d"vErt/. (The colloquial abbreviation for 'advertisement' has the stress on the first syllable.)

=====Note=====

This pattern of shifting stress in words that look identical but belong to two separate word classes is quite common in English.

Quirk (1985) (Appendix I.56 B) describes the most common: "When verbs of two syllables are converted into nouns, the stress is sometimes shifted from the second to the first syllable. The first syllable, typically a Latin prefix, often has a reduced vowel /ə/ in the verb but a full vowel in the noun: He was con-VICT-ed (IPA: /kən ˈvɪkt ɪd/) of theft, and so became a CON vict (IPA: /ˈkɒn vɪkt/)" [AWE's rendition of IPA].

There follows a list of some 57 "words having end-stress as verbs but initial stress as nouns in Br[itish] E[nglish]." Note that "in Am[erican] E[nglish], many have initial stress as verbs also". Quirk's list is the foundation of AWE's category:shift of stress. Additions have been made from, amongst others, Fowler, 1926-1996.