Humans are genetically programmed to symbolize.
conditioning paradigm, symbols have a purely arbitrary relationship to their referents.
The word "Superman," for example, does not sound, look or feel like the man.
One might think that this would be a disadvantage for symbols in comparison to signs as a media for communication. Signs should be easier to learn.
But this is where nature has stepped in to provide humans with an awesome edge--the prodigious ability to create and recall great numbers of arbitrary Concept/Symbol (Word) associations. This is the "guts" of language.
Just as it is no problem for a giraffe to reach nutritious leaves high up in a tree, it is no problem for humans to learn words.
In fact many persons after having attended college have acquired over 100,000 words in their lexicon!