Obtaining theoretical predictions for friction during sliding motion is challenging due to the complex nature of the problem. In the so-called noncontact regime, the friction tensor is given by the leading order of the pairwise interactions between the probe and the surface atoms. In such a regime, one can thus find an analytic expression of the friction tensor. Starting from a stochastic viscoelastic solid model, we identify the two paradigmatic dissipation mechanisms: phonon radiation, prevailing even in a purely elastic solid, and phonon damping, e.g., caused by viscous motion of crystal atoms. At small probe-surface separations, phonon damping dominates over phonon radiation, and vice versa at large separations. Phonon radiation is furthermore universal; there exists a general one-to-one mapping between the mean probe-surface force and the resulting friction. In contrast, phonon damping is non- universal, and no such general relation exists; it is subject to the details of the underlying pairwise interaction, e.g., the interaction range. For certain cases, the friction can even decrease with increasing surface area the probe interacts with.