Onomatopoeia

In studying language, it is often pointed out that the connection between any word and what it signifies is arbitrary; that is, there is no a priori, compelling reason why, for instance, the domesticated four-legged canine animal should be called dog—it could very well have been pig. It was coincidental that this animal was named dog and it was through centuries of conventional use that dog became the linguistic sign in English to refer to this actual animal. The principle behind the arbitrariness of meaning-symbol connection holds up across languages. Nevertheless, there is a class of words in languages where the sound-meaning relationship shows certain connections. Such is the case with onomatopoeia, which is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as words that "imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to," such as "buzz" or "murmur."