[ropejumper]

My favorite simple example of this is exclusive "we". It's not a thing in most languages, but it allows a level of passive aggressiveness that you can't achieve without it.

Saying "we're going without you" isn't nearly as impactful as "_we_ are going", using a hypothetical exclusive we.

As another example, Romanian has a relatively unique "presumptive" verb mood, which has a certain connotation that's hard to achieve without it. It can show curiosity and resignment at the same time (besides other things.)

The conciseness is the whole point. Using words to explicitly describe things can ruin the effect.

[eszed]

I'd push back on that, because you do get that passive-voice exclusive "we" in English, just as concisely - except it's expressed through stress pattern (as you indicate with your underlines), not vocabulary / grammar. I think that's exciting, because it gives English (as written) a lot of poetic ambiguity and (as spoken) a lot of performative - if you will - flexibility.

[ropejumper]

Fair point! I think it's just a different way of expression, and both are valuable in their own way.