Verbs of falling in modern Chinese

This paper deals with verbs of falling in modern Chinese within the framework of lexical typology. The core and peripheral lexemes are described in detail, the structure of disyllabic lexemes is analyzed. A description of the structure of the semantic fi eld in Chinese and summary tables reflecting the verbs characteristic of each of the basic frames are proposed. Based on the analysis of the semantics of disyllabic lexemes and the monosyllables forming them, three types of semantic relations are distinguished: disjunction, intersection and mixed. Within the disjunction type the meaning of the disyllabic item coincides with the meaning of one of the components: for 掉落 diàoluò, 洒落 sǎluò, 降落 jiàngluò, 坠落 zhuìluò, 滴落 dīluò the meaning of the whole lexeme is equivalent to the meaning of the first component, for 坍塌 tāntā — of the second component. Within the intersection type the meaning of the disyllable is the intersecting part of the values of monosyllables. E.g., 倒 dǎo covers the frames “falling of a vertical object” and “destruction of a vertical object”, 塌 tā — “destruction of a vertical object”, “falling of the supporting surface”, “falling of the ceiling”, “collapse of mountains and coasts”, and 倒塌 dǎotā — only “destruction of a vertical object”. In the mixed type the value of the disyllable does not coincide with the value of monosyllables. It is also concluded that disyllabic lexemes, in contrast to monosyllabic ones, tend to be used in written language and are rarely used in colloquial language. Monosyllabic lexemes often express both direct and figurative meanings, disyllables tend to either direct or figurative meaning.