Language is not just a tool for communication, but it also shapes our understanding of the world, and the way we conceptualize and perceive objects and meanings.
One interesting example for this is an interesting difference between Arabic and English that shows an underlying difference in our ways of thinking.
In English, there are nouns and adjectives. Two distinct parts of speech. So for any word, you can easily tell if it's a noun or an adjective. Airplane is a noun, young is an adjective, pencil is a noun.
Arabic however has a very different approach. In Arabic, there is no distinction between a noun and an adjective. An adjective is also a noun.
In Arabic grammar, a noun is defined as "whatever refers to an entity" so how can an adjective like "tall" or "beautiful" refer to an entity ?
Airplane in Arabic is طائرة Taa-era which is derived from the verb طار "Taara" which means "to fly". and the word "Taa-era" itself means "the flying" i.e The flying thing or the flying craft. So you can gradually see how "Taa-era" is a noun because it refers to an entity (the airplane) and its also an adjective because it references it by describing it. It literally means "the flying" i.e the flying thing / vehicle
This also explains why Arabic is a language so rich in morphology and derivation. Think about the English word "writer". It is derived from the verb "write". "Employer" and "employee" from "employ". You easily notice there is a rule or pattern for derivation. Add "er" (in most cases) to derive the name of the actor. Add "ee" as in employee to derive the name of the noun upon which the action happened.
What's the advantage of derivation? when you already know the pattern of derivation, you don't need to add a new word to your vocabulary. You already know the initial verb "write" and by only knowing the convention (adding er or ee) You can generate more nouns that are easily understood by everyone who recognizes the derivation pattern.
So instead of inventing a new word for "airplane" we simply derive it from the verb "Taara" which means to fly, following a well defined derivation rule. So instead of giving "airplane" a name, we are actually describing it as "the flying thing" The description here serves to reference the object.
Arabic has derivation rules for the name of the actor, object, time of the action, place of the action, manner, all of which are standard and can be applied to all verbs
Arabic is a Lego kit very fun to play wit
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