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This article presents some results of cross-linguistic research on verbs of pushing and pulling in nine Slavic languages. These data call into question the traditional notion of the semantic field as a clear-cut class of lexical units. It is shown that, due to semantic adjacency, fields may overlap, so that in different languages the same event may be described by verbs that would be assigned to different semantic fields in the traditional approach. The violation of inter-field boundaries is evidenced by both synchronic and diachronic data.

The paper gives a cross-linguistic insight into the domain of falling predicates. The research employs the methods based on combinability restrictions of lexical items in different languages developed by the Moscow Lexical Typology Group. The basic typologically relevant parameters that constitute the domain are the object of a falling event, the source of the motion and the goal of the motion. The lexical data presented in the study was collected from more than 20 languages.