Fall (v) and its componential meanings

[toloue_man]

Read the following sentence:
Russian officials say a 10-ton meteor has fallen near the country's Ural Moutains.

Now that you have read the sentence,as a native speaker of English, what is your understanding? Do you understand that a meteor has first passed through the atmosphere and then struck to the crust of the earth? Simply speaking, does the verb "fallen" has the concept of passing through the atmosphere at first and then striking to the earth crust in its componential meanings?

 

[Tdol]

If it's fallen near mountains, then it has hit the earth's surface. The only way to do that for a meteor is to go through the atmosphere, but we really don't worry or care about that. If something happens in the street, it happens in the street and we don't need to sit around and worry about whether it left a building to enter the street. We couldn't care about the atmosphere- we care about where it landed and hurt people.

 

[SoothingDave]

I suppose the meteor could have fallen off of a scaffolding or off of a crane. It might have fallen off of a giant airplane. But, the normal way that meteors fall is from outer space and through the atmosphere. So a reader would assume that was the case unless different information was given.

 

[Grumpy]

I suppose the meteor could have fallen off of a scaffolding or off of a crane. It might have fallen off of a giant airplane. But, the normal way that meteors fall is from outer space and through the atmosphere. So a reader would assume that was the case unless different information was given.

Two classic examples of the many subtle differences between American and British English. British English would express this as "fallen off a scaffolding...etc", and called it an aeroplane.

 

[Tdol]

I suppose the meteor could have fallen off of a scaffolding or off of a crane.

It could, but that would be moving into man-bites-dog territory IMO.