You made me wanna read some Chinese books so that I can make observations about the structure n get back to you. Haha.
Off the top of my head, I will say Chinese is a highly compact language. We have lotsa 4-character idioms that are the crystallisation of five thousand years of wisdom. Some of these idioms will require a lot of words in English if we translate them. For example, 不劳而获 means to gain something without working for it - sounds cumbersome.
Yes I think it’s amazing how the Art of War is still applicable to our modern lives!
I appreciate you took the time to do that :)
That's fascinating to me, I want to learn Chinese for that reason, it will unblock other thought abilities I don't know of. It will be many years until I can devote to it the way it deserves, but will do so for sure.
reply
Given how cerebral you are, I’m curious to know what cognitive abilities you think you lack
reply
I'm flattered, thank you :) You will see this too: by being able to compare the abilities of expression the different languages you can speak allow, you can infer that there has to be something you are not being able to clearly picture in your mind, that other language can. Need not other example than the one you gave above. Call it "schemes of concept amalgamation" if you wish, within a word and between them, for which combinations are endless, prompting past and future languages.
reply