Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
...the association between an object and its name is determined.


Are they saying here that what a thing is determines its name, or that names naturally come from the essence of a thing? For the former, family names in many European languages - Metzger, Smith, etc. - fit the bill; and for the latter, I can imagine (perhaps) the original sound to represent a thing being coined to evoke the thing in question. "Cricket," for a simple example, could imitate the sound a cricket makes. Of course, not all coinage need be onomatopoeic, but is that the idea?

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