When verbs don't sound like verbs

A new Cornell study shows that the sound of a word tells us something about how it's used.

The press release (which I find very interesting) begins as follows:

For more than 100 years the standard view among traditional language theorists was that, with the exception of onomatopoeia like "fizz" and "beep," the sound of a word tells us nothing about how it is used. This seemingly arbitrary relationship between words and their meaning in human language is hailed as singular to our species.

A new Cornell study takes that view to task.



For some reason, this report is making me think of a line in Kill Bill, Vol. 1: "My name is Buck. ..."