Verbs of falling in Norwegian (Bokmål)

This paper deals with verbs of falling in Norwegian (Bokmål). The study is based on the frame approach to lexical typology developed by the Moscow lexical typology group. In accordance with this approach, lexical units are described with regard to the possibilities of their use in typical situations (frames), where prototypical participants occur. As the study shows, Norwegian has a dominant system of verbs of falling, in which the whole set of frames is covered by one verb (in the case of Norwegian it is the verb falle). The dominant verb has a fairly wide network of synonyms, which consists mainly of expressive verbs. Among them, there is a subgroup of lexemes that convey a sound which a falling object produces when it reaches a solid surface. There is also a number of onomatopoeic verbs describing light objects falling from above in the air or describing the fall of large masses of liquids. A separate small group is made up of so-called meteorological verbs denoting precipitation. On the periphery of the semantic domain of falling there are verbs marking a change from normal vertical position of floating objects to horizontal or vertical (and some other verbs). Of particular interest are cases of the development of ‘falling’ semantics for verbs that are etymologically related to other meanings (for instance, ‘roll’) or have a different basic meaning in modern Norwegian (‘trickle’, ‘slam, punch’).