Let's say I'm a trader in a foreign land, and I'm trying to communicate with the locals. Conveying nouns seems straightforward. If I want to teach them the word "blanket," I point at the blanket I'm selling and say "blanket." They'll likely respond with the word in their language. So far, so good.

Verbs also seem pretty easy. I just do the thing, and then say the word. I walk a bit (or pantomime with my fingers) and say "walk." Simple enough.

Even adjectives don't seem that hard, especially after we have a working vocabulary of nouns and verbs. If they know "blanket" and "rock," I can use that to teach "soft" and "hard."

But how do we get from there to other parts of speech? How would did early cultures communicate grammatical concepts such as "because" or "although" or "therefore" that have no physical equivalent whatsoever?

And what about abstract nouns that have no physical counterpart? Like, I feel as though I could convey "love" or "fear" pretty simply through charades. But what about "duty" or "imagination" or "problem?"

How did we get to a point where all the different languages of the world not only understand each other, but can translate stuff with no direct correlation to the physical world?