Where Do Word Meanings Come From?
With few exceptions, the meanings assigned to a particular word are completely arbitrary. For example, the sounds and letters that when combined make up the word tree have no characteristics that could possibly influence, much less dictate, our understanding of an actual tree. Objects and concepts are expressed with quite different words in different languages: tree is arbol in Spanish and Baum in German. Furthermore, if you ask a group of people to imagine a tree, chances are they will have some different mental pictures. Perhaps some would picture a pine tree while others would picture an oak. Some would imagine a small tree, some a big tree. Some images may include a tire swing, a tree house, or a bird’s nest, while others may not. However, a few words do seem to have some inherent association with what they refer to. Onomatopoetic words sound like their real world reference. Thus, ding, crash, and clang all sound like the sound they describe. Likewise, bark, meow, and chirp all sou
