Onomatopoeia – is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder), by things (machines or tools), by people (singing, laughter) and by animals. Combination of speech sounds of this type will inevitably be associated with whatever produces the natural sound. The relation between onomatopoeia and phenomenon it is supposed to represent is one of metonymy. As I. R. Galperin demonstrates, there are two varieties of onomatopoeia, direct and indirect. Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds as ding-dong, buzz, bang, cuckoo, mew, roar, ping-pong and the like. These words have different degrees of imitative quality. Some of them immediately bring to mind whatever it is that produces the sound. Others require the exercise of a certain amount of imagination to decipher it.
Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of utterance an echo of its sense. Sometimes called “echo-writing”. I.O. unlike alliteration demands some mention of what makes the sound. Sometimes IO is very effectively used by repeating words which themselves are not onomatopoeic, as in Poe’s poem “The Bells”
