What is the meaning of から here?


Tell me please, what から means in his sentence? If I'm guessing corrctly it
would translate something like "She fall on her face really hard", but
still... would ”顔面に全力で” be incorrect here?

Sentence: コケていた。恐らくは・・・・・・顔面から全力で。

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Cp5tI.jpg)

Thanks you very much for your help.




I think `から` here is "a particle which indicates a starting point or a source"
(A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, p.176). `顔面から` is describing a verb
of motion
([コケる](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/detail?p=%E3%81%93%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B&stype=0&dtype=0),
to fall).

![picture](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3ILx0.png)

(My apologies for the bad drawing _and_ handwriting! It's supposed to say
[顔面]{がんめん}から・[先]{さき}に・[地面]{じめん}に like in @Chocolate's comment.)

So the motion described by `コケる` is from the face, toward the ground. 先{さき}に
and 地面{じめん}に aren't part of your original sentence, but I think you can use
them to describe the motion.

I don't think you can use `に` here. I think you're trying to understand by
substituting English words for Japanese ones. If you do that, your sentence
sounds like "I fell _from_ my face", and you're wondering if you can
substitute `に` because you think the English phrase "I fell _on_ my face"
sounds more natural. Unfortunately, this doesn't work, because although `コケる`
expresses falling, it doesn't do it in quite the same way as the English word
"fall".




I think `から` here is "a particle which indicates a starting point or a source"
(A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, p.176). `顔面から` is describing a verb
of motion
([コケる](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/detail?p=%E3%81%93%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B&stype=0&dtype=0),
to fall).

![picture](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3ILx0.png)

(My apologies for the bad drawing _and_ handwriting! It's supposed to say
[顔面]{がんめん}から・[先]{さき}に・[地面]{じめん}に like in @Chocolate's comment.)

So the motion described by `コケる` is from the face, toward the ground. 先{さき}に
and 地面{じめん}に aren't part of your original sentence, but I think you can use
them to describe the motion.

I don't think you can use `に` here. I think you're trying to understand by
substituting English words for Japanese ones. If you do that, your sentence
sounds like "I fell _from_ my face", and you're wondering if you can
substitute `に` because you think the English phrase "I fell _on_ my face"
sounds more natural. Unfortunately, this doesn't work, because although `コケる`
expresses falling, it doesn't do it in quite the same way as the English word
"fall".

