Daria Ryzhova*, Ekaterina Rakhilina, Tatiana Reznikova and Yulia Badryzlova Lexical systems with systematic gaps: verbs of falling https://doi.org/10.1515/flin-2023-2046 Received February 7, 2023; accepted August 3, 2023; published online January 19, 2024 Abstract: The paper contributes to the typology of encoding motion events by highlighting the role of the verbal root meaning in lexicalization of motion. We focus on lexical semantics of the verbs of falling, which we study on a sample of 42 languages using the frame-based approach to lexical typology. We show that, along with downward motion, the verbs of falling regularly denote adjacent situations; and vice versa, the idea of downward motion is systematically conveyed by verbs from adjacent semantic fields. These findings challenge the application of the classical parameters of motion events (e.g. Path) to any given motion event description and offer new insights into the understanding of lexicalization patterns in general. Keywords: manner; motion events; path; lexical typology; verbs of falling 1 Introduction 1.1 Verbs of motion Verbs of motion undeniably belong to the nuclear lexicon of language, hence the steady interest of lexical semanticists to their analysis. The field was pioneered in the 1970–80s with the arrival of the groundbreaking works by Leonard Talmy (Talmy 1972, 1974, 1985), which blazed a trail for years to come. Talmy (1985: 61) defines the four key components of a motion event: – Motion (or stationary location) per se; – Figure – the moving or located object (The ball rolled under the table); – Ground – the landmark in relation to which the object is moving or located (The ball rolled under the table); *Corresponding author: Daria Ryzhova, HSE University, Moscow, Russia, E-mail: daria.ryzhova@mail.ru Ekaterina Rakhilina, HSE University, Moscow, Russia; and Vinogradov Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, E-mail: rakhilina@gmail.com Tatiana Reznikova and Yulia Badryzlova, HSE University, Moscow, Russia, E-mail: tanja.reznikova@gmail.com (T. Reznikova), yuliya.badryzlova@gmail.com (Y. Badryzlova) Folia Linguistica 2024; 58(1): 191–226