Apposition

[NewHope]

Context:
WACO, Texas (AP) — President Bush opened several new scathing lines of attack against Democrat John Kerry, charges that twisted his rival's words on Iraq and made Kerry seem supportive of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

everal new scathing lines of attack = charges

or

lines = charges

The relationship between "lines" and 'charges" is an apposition.

Right?

[Mister Micawber]

Right, NewHope.

[NewHope]

LOL. Mi.Micawber.

You've searched so hardly to find this English hangout!

:D

Thanks for replying.

[Mister Micawber]

Nope, I just stumbled upon it, NH.

[NewHope]

Ah. Stumble upon = come across

But there was once I used in my post in an American forum, some members there asked me back what was "stumble upon". I suspected then the compound verb is rarely used.

Have they joked with me?

[Mister Micawber]

Originally Posted by NH

Have they joked with me?

Dunno, NewHope-- maybe. It's hard for me to believe they weren't familiar with the idiom. But then, as you know, some native speakers are not well-acquainted with their own language. Beware.

[NewHope]

Yeah, too many Americans are not good at their native language, just as too many Chinese are not good at Chinese.

Excellent language skills need great exertions.

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by NewHope

Context:
WACO, Texas (AP) — President Bush opened several new scathing lines of attack against Democrat John Kerry, charges that twisted his rival's words on Iraq and made Kerry seem supportive of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

everal new scathing lines of attack = charges

or

lines = charges

The relationship between "lines" and 'charges" is an apposition.

Right?

I'm not sure they are in apposition- 'lines' to me describes the connected elements of the attack, like the line of an argument.

[Casiopea]

[quote="tdol"]

Originally Posted by NewHope

President Bush opened several new scathing lines of attack against Democrat John Kerry, charges that twisted his rival's words on Iraq and made Kerry seem supportive of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

I'm not sure they are in apposition- 'lines' to me describes the connected elements of the attack, like the line of an argument.

Agreed. Apposition has structural constraints, notably, proximity. Here, in our example sentence, 'charges' renames 'lines of attack' which is a property of appositives but it is not within close enough proximity to be labelled as apposition. Modification is my choice:

Q: What kind of lines of attack?
A: Charges that... (Adjective)

All the best, tdol.
Are you there yet? Asia? :D