Stylistic semasiology

Theory of sound associations
The gist of the theory: Sounds have meaning (if not separate — combinations of sounds). There are keen adherents to this theory: Verier, Bloomfield, Fonagy. They consider that the sound [u:] generally expresses sorrow or seriousness (we use it to frighten children); [I:] pro­duces the feeling of joy etc. Poets who are keen on sounds feel and use this phenomenon. A.Huxley (an English modern author) wrote that Eng­lishmen do not know what "love" means, unlike Italians in whose "amore" the very sound is passionate "If the English knew what passion meant, they would have found another word". The Russian poet B.Pasternak says that "The music of words results from the correlation of the meaning of the utterance with its sound."
Onomatopoeia
It aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder), by things, by people (laughter, sighing) and by animals. Combinations of speech sounds are inevitably associated with whatever produces the natural sound. Therefore the relation between onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it is sup­posed to represent is one of metonymy. Reproducing natural sounds arouses in our minds the producer of the sound.
There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect.
Direct onomatopoeia presents a direct imitation of certain nature sounds. The word itself has no meaning besides imitating:
e.g. bang, mew, pitty-patty (тип-топ), to buzz (жужжать, хохот).
Onomatopoeic words may be used in a transferred meaning:
e.g. ding-dong — meaning "noisy", strenuously contested; ding-dong struggle.
Indirect onomatopoeia is the use of words which by themselves are not imitating anything but in combination they make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense:
e.g. "О как, о как нам к вам, о Боже, не взывать"
(Сумароков «Молитва лягушки»)
And the silken, sad, uncertain
Rustling of each purple curtain.
(A. Poe)
Indirect onomatopoeia demands some mention of what makes the sound as in the examples above (лягушка, rustling)
Though natural sounds are everywhere the same, they are imitated differ­ently in different languages (birds twitter — птицы чирикают).