Combat  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Dempsey and Firpo (1924) by George Bellows
Enlarge
Dempsey and Firpo (1924) by George Bellows
This page Combat is part of the bread and circuses series. Illustration: Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872
Enlarge
This page Combat is part of the bread and circuses series.
Illustration: Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

Combat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition.

The term combat (French for fight) typically refers to armed conflict between military forces in warfare, whereas the more general term "fighting" can refer to any violent conflict between individuals or nations. Combat violence can be unilateral, whereas fighting implies at least a defensive reaction. However, the terms are often used synonymously along with the term "Battle Ready". A large-scale fight is known as a battle.

Combat may take place under a certain set of rules or be unregulated. Examples of rules include the Geneva Conventions (covering the treatment of soldiers in war), medieval Chivalry, the Marquess of Queensberry rules (covering boxing) and several forms of combat sports.

Combat in warfare involves two or more opposing military organizations, usually fighting for nations at war (although guerrilla warfare and suppression of insurgencies can fall outside this definition). Warfare falls under the laws of war, which govern its purposes and conduct, and protect the rights of soldiers and non-combatants.

Combat may be armed (using weapons), or unarmed (not using weapons). Hand-to-hand combat (melee) is combat at very close range, attacking the opponent with the body (striking, kicking, strangling, etc.) and/or with a melee weapon (knives, swords, batons, etc.), as opposed to a ranged weapon.

Verbal combat

Certain speech act structures related to verbal and also physical exchanges are extant in ancient times as well as today. Fixed speech act patterns employed in a verbal exchange are a phenomenon found in historical and modern texts alike. Although conventions change over time and from one culture to the other, ritualised exchanges seem to be part of the basic inventory of language usage, and so it is quite common to find similarities between the way individuals from various cultures engage in a verbal duel. Verbal combat may result in physical combat after a certain extent.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Combat" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools