Phrase

In everyday speech, a phrase may be any group of words, often carrying a special idiomatic meaning; in this sense it is roughly synonymous with expression. In linguistic analysis, a phrase is a group of words (or possibly a single word) that functions as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence—a single unit within a grammatical hierarchy. A phrase appears within a clause, although it is also possible for a phrase to be a clause or to contain a clause within it.

Common and technical use

There is a difference between the common use of the term phrase and its technical use in linguistics. In common usage, a phrase is usually a group of words with some special idiomatic meaning or other significance, such as "all rights reserved", "economical with the truth", "kick the bucket", and the like. It may be a euphemism, a saying or proverb, a fixed expression, a figure of speech, etc.

In grammatical analysis, particularly in theories of syntax, a phrase is any group of words, or sometimes a single word, which plays a particular role within the grammatical structure of a sentence. It does not have to have any special meaning or significance, or even exist anywhere outside of the sentence being analyzed, but it must function there as a complete grammatical unit. For example, in the sentence Yesterday I saw an orange bird with a white neck, the words an orange bird with a white neck form what is called a noun phrase, or a determiner phrase in some theories, which functions as the object of the sentence.

Phrase (disambiguation)

A phrase may be a linguistic expression or a constituent in the grammatical analysis of a sentence.

Phrase may also refer to:

Fencing practice and techniques

Fencing practice and techniques of modern competitive fencing are governed by the FIE, though they developed from conventions developed in 18th- and 19th-century Europe to govern fencing as a martial art and a gentlemanly pursuit. The modern weapons for sport fencing are the foil, épée, and sabre.

Location

A fencing bout takes place on a strip, or piste, which, according to the current FIE regulations, should be between 1.5 and 2 metres wide and 14 metres long. Two metres either side of the midpoint, there are two en-garde lines, where the fencers stand at the beginning of the bout. There are also two warning lines two metres from either end of the strip, to let a retreating fencer know that he/she is nearly out of space. Retreating off of the strip scores a touch for the opponent.

Participants

There are at least three people involved: two fencers and a referee, formerly called a "Director" or "President of the jury". The referee may be assisted by a jury of two or four line-judges. This was common practice prior to the introduction of electronic scoring. Their function is somewhat similar to that of linesmen in soccer. Their primary job used to be to watch for hits scored. Consequently, the arrival of the electronic scoring apparatus has rendered them largely redundant. Under current FIE rules, a fencer may ask for two side-judges (one to watch each fencer) if they think that the referee is failing to notice some infringement of the rules on their opponent's part (such as use of the unarmed hand, substitution of the valid target area, breaching the boundary of the piste etc.).

NIE

NIE or Nie or Nieh (before pinyin) may mean:

Nie (surname)

Nie (simplified Chinese: 聂; traditional Chinese: 聶; pinyin: Niè) is a Chinese surname. Nie is the 126th surname in the Hundred Family Surnames. It is spelled Nip in Cantonese.

Notable people named Nie

Notes

NIE (weekly magazine)

NIE (Polish for "No") is a Polish weekly magazine published in Warsaw.

History and profile

The magazine was first published in October 1990.Jerzy Urban is both the founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine.

Its political line is left. The magazine is very critical of right wing political vies and religion, especially Catholicism. In the 1990s it supported the leader of the Democratic Left Alliance, Aleksander Kwasniewski. It publishes lot of satirical texts with cartoons and pictures.

NIE has a circulation of 600,000 copies in 1991. In 1995 its circulation was over 700,000 copies.

In 1990 when Solidarity and the church were planning to push a strict new anti-abortion law through parliament, the magazine published a quarter-page, full-color photograph of a nude couple about to make love to warn its readers that "they risked going to jail or being forced into unwanted marriages if they did what the couple in the picture was about to do." The church leaders and President Lech Walesa harshly criticized it and in March 1991 the prosecutor's office charged Urban with "publishing an image of pornographic character."