Are meanings of word roots arbitrary (dogma) or motivated by sound shape? In between? How about onomatopoeia?

Question

Many words in seem to have no obvious connection to meaning (ex.: English dog), others may be more motivated by their sound shape (glitter, gleam, glisten, glow, glance, etc., or lag, sag, drag; ram, cram, slam, and so on) made more obvious perhaps by listing them by same segment or segments.

In some languages there are hardly ANY onomatopoeic (imitative) words, in others they can make up as much as half of all word roots (maybe more)- there is no connection to culture level, but there may be one to the TYPE of language (how it puts words and affixes, if any, together). How rich do you feel your language is in this regard?

Some people are much more in tune with form/meaning connections, where they exist, than others- how are you with this?
Others are aware of even deeper connections- such as those between sound and other sensations (colors, shapes, densities, textures). You?

It's often held that onomatopoeia is 'childish' and best left behind by the better educated. How do you feel?

Answer 1

I feel it is onomatopoeia