3

I noticed that in business English, "please advise" is often used as a fixed phrase in context where it basically means "please respond". I looked at Wiktionary and found this among the definitions:

(transitive) To give information or notice to; to inform or counsel; — with of before the thing communicated.

Does "of" have a special meaning here?

Monty Harder
  • 216
  • 2
  • 5
d33tah
  • 685
  • 1
  • 5
  • 14

1 Answers1

14

The word "of" is in italics in the original. The phrase you highlighted, more properly formatted as

  • "with of before the thing communicated",

means that the word "advise" is accompanied by the word "of", where the word "of" is written "before the thing communicated".

Their example makes this clear:

We were advised of the risk.

The word "of" accompanies the word "advise(d)", and is written before the phrase "the risk" (which is the thing communicated or advised).

As @R.M. comments, this is a 'use-mention distinction':

The distinction between use and mention can be illustrated for the word cheese:

  • Use: Cheese is derived from milk.
  • Mention: 'Cheese' is derived from the Old English word ċēse.

The first sentence is a statement about the substance called "cheese"; it uses the word 'cheese' to refer to that substance. The second is a statement about the word 'cheese' as a signifier; it mentions the word without using it to refer to anything other than itself.

- Wikipedia

In the terminology of this distinction, the word "of" in your example is mentioned but not used.

Lawrence
  • 6,001
  • 2
  • 18
  • 26
  • 4
    See the use–mention distinction for more information as to why the italics are important in interpreting the sentence. – R.M. Mar 26 '18 at 18:27
  • @R.M. Thanks, and spot on - I've added this to my answer. – Lawrence Mar 26 '18 at 23:21
  • 1
    Probably worth noting that one wouldn't use of in the example in the question. E.g., "Please advise when you're available for a meeting" or "Please advise whether this is possible." – T.J. Crowder Mar 27 '18 at 07:17
  • @T.J.Crowder Which example are you referring to? I don’t see one in the question at the moment, but I might have missed something. – Lawrence Mar 27 '18 at 09:14
  • @Lawrence: The first sentence of the question: "I noticed that in business English, "please advise" is often used as a fixed phrase in context where it basically means "please respond"." Not a full example by any means, but you wouldn't use "of" there in the context described. – T.J. Crowder Mar 27 '18 at 09:16
  • @T.J.Crowder Do you mean using of in conjunction with please advise? Some instances are valid - e.g. “Please advise (us) of any dietary requirements.” – Lawrence Mar 27 '18 at 09:24
  • @Lawrence: That isn't in the sense of "please respond," at least not how I read the question's opening. Of course, you could say "Please respond with any dietary requirements" but my read was much more along the lines of the examples I gave above. It's not worth an ongoing discussion, though. – T.J. Crowder Mar 27 '18 at 09:32