Verbs of Falling in Japanese

Abstract

The paper examines the semantic domain of falling in modern Japanese. The domain is comprised of two verbs of falling down, ochiru and furu; two verbs of falling over, taoreru and korobu; and one of falling and rolling, korogaru. They differ in their preferred type of trajector (objects for ochiru, rain etc. for furu; animate for korobu, unspecified for taoreru). Some finer characteristics can also be seen: for furu other trajectors than rainfall are acceptable if they come from above the viewpoint. For korobu the trajector must be self-propelling. For vertical objects the resulting prostrate state is covered by taoreru even if the fall itself comes under ochiru.