The motion verbs have unusual semantic content, e.g., conflating 'go up' with 'enter', not distinguishing lexically between 'come' and 'go', etc. There is a very rich set of postpositions describing spatial relations, with much finer distinctions than e.g. English on or in . But here we report on another feature of special interest, existential verbs, which have a kind of classificatory function. Locative expressions normally require one of these verbs, for example one says in effect 'the cup stands on the table', 'the mango sits in the bowl', 'the shoe hangs on the foot', etc. The answer is complex.
All familiar nouns have a default assignment by convention.
This becomes clear in two ways. First, abstract or non-concrete nouns require a specific existential, e.g., one says 'A smell is standing here', 'Mist is sitting on the mountain', 'Sickness is hanging in that village'. Despite this default assignment by apparently arbitrary convention, in many sentences one can nevertheless use another existential, in which case the literal meaning of the main verb use becomes prominent. But if one wishes to emphasize that they are standing one uses the 'stand' verb. Less obviously, there are other contrasts made possible by selection of a verb other than the default.