[vacri]

> We also have the fact that you can join nouns in Germany to develop rather abstract concepts that are nearly impossible to write down this way in English

I can understand not being able to describe a concept at all, but I don't understand why it's so important to be able to do it in a single word. Wikipedia says Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz is a shortening of Gesetz zur Übertragung der Aufgaben für die Überwachung der Rinderkennzeichnung und Rindfleischetikettierung, but I don't understand the benefit of shortening it to a single word versus shortening it to a shorter phrase or acronym.

I mean, USA PATRIOT Act, ridiculous as it is, is an easier shortening of Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act than a single word that itself is half as long as the phrase it's replacing.

[wolfgke]

> but I don't understand the benefit of shortening it to a single word versus shortening it to a shorter phrase or acronym.

To give a comparison: One can in old versions of Java simulate higher-order functions by writing an abstract interface and a class implementing it. An instance of such an object is passed as the function to a Java implementation, say, of foldl.

This is possible - but it can be done in a much more convenient way like Haskell does.

Now imagine how much more "expressive" the English language would become if such very abstract concepts could be used as a single-noun subject or object in an English sentence. The advantage is similar to the difference between the Java vs. Haskell implementation of foldl.