<i>The words are falling</i> : The Syntagmatic Combination of the Lexemes <i>slovo</i> ‘word’ and <i>padnout/padat</i> ‘to (be) fall(ing)’ as a Building Block of Other Stereotyped Expressions and Phrasemes

Abstract This study examines the syntagmtic combination of the lexemes slovo ‘ word’ and padnout/padat ‘to (be) fall(ing)’ in contemporary Czech, focusing on how this structure functions as a building block for various multiword expressions and phrasemes. Based on data from the Czech National Corpus (Syn v13), the research analyses the syntactic and lexical development of this syntagm and its semantic functions in different contexts. The findings reveal that this combination appears in several distinct multiword expressions with varying degrees of stability and idiomaticity, rather than representing modifications of a single phraseme. While some expressions serve as verba dicendi that can be freely developed syntactically and lexically, others form the nucleus of established phrasemes, most notably the biblical expression slova padla na ú rodnou p ů du ‘words fell on fertile soil’. The study demonstrates significant differences in the usage patterns of perfective versus imperfective verb forms, and singular versus plural forms of the noun, which correlate with specific phraseological meanings and contexts.