What My Daughter’s Drawing Taught Me About Words

Language is a maker, not a mirror. And continuing to use it creatively is now more important than ever.?

When my daughter was first learning to read and write, she would leave crayon drawings with brief notes to me on the desk in my office.

One day, after lunch, I discovered a drawing of two blonde stick figures under a bright orange sun. Beneath the sky, she had written:

“I love you a million reallys.”

I inferred, and later confirmed, that this meant, “I really, really, really … (a million times) love you.”

It was a touching moment for me as a father. It was also a fascinating example of what linguists call productive morphology—the ability humans have to generate entirely new expressions by bending and blending the elements of language.

Think about how remarkable this is. With zero formal training, my five-year-old daughter instinctively stretched the boundaries of English to build something novel. She transformed really from an adverb (which typically can’t be counted) into a noun, then applied a quantifier (“a million”) to it to form a complex adverbial phrase. Then she used her linguistic innovation to capture a fleeting but important feeling—in bright green crayon.

Millions of other parents have similar stories about their own little poets using language in compelling and creative ways. (“Out of the mouths of babes …” as the old saying goes.)

These aren’t just cute moments of childhood creativity. They’re glimpses into a fundamental truth about language …

Words Are Inherently Poetic

Language doesn’t just reflect the world or tell stories about it. It prefigures perception and gives form to experience. Much of what we call “information” exists only because we have words to describe it. And much that has a form of its own enters our experience only because language allows us to grapple with it.

This creative process isn’t just a childhood phenomenon—it’s fundamental to how humans make sense of reality. Shakespeare put it this way:

“And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, The poet’s pen turns them to shapes, And gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.”

Language isn’t just a way to talk about the world, it makes the world available to us in the first place.

Long before we start telling structured stories or writing down rules and regulations for language, we use words to grasp at meaning—to explore, discover, and impose form on the vast, swirling chaos of existence.?

Our sense of self, our ability to organize thought, our power to rationalize and categorize, all are tied into this fundamentally poetic act of making meaning with words.

Creative Change Is the One Constant

Of course, linguistic creativity isn’t limited to childhood. Humans constantly create novel expressions by recombining linguistic elements in new ways. Every time we speak, we generate fresh combinations, reshaping our perception of the world in the process.?

Every new slang term, technological term, and cultural expression is a testament to language’s relentless inventiveness. Words like google (as a verb), selfie, and adulting emerged from people playing with language “in real time” (itself a recent turn of phrase). Shakespeare alone is said to have added 1,700 words to the English lexicon by continually stretching the limits of what his language could do.

If language were a stagnant set of rules and lists of words, the world would have left it behind long ago. But it never has, and it never will. Because language is a poet, constantly reshaping itself in response to the world and, in crucial respects, reshaping the world in turn.

This is what makes language so powerful: it isn’t static, but generative. It doesn’t just document interactions; it produces meaning. It adapts to meet the expressive needs of its users, whether they type in pixels or draw in crayon.

Crucially, this creativity isn’t just something to observe—it’s something to practice as often as you can. In a world where attention-sucking algorithms threaten to consume your cognitive capacity and AI makes it all too easy to bypass critical thinking, playing with language is arguably more important than ever.?

Here are a few ways to unleash the poetic power of language in your own life.?

Four Simple Ways to Get Creative

1. Invent a word for something that has no name. Think about a feeling, situation, or experience that you’ve struggled to describe.Create a new word for it. (Example: Flawsome—when a mistake turns out to be a great decision.) Use it in conversation and see how people respond.
2. Push the boundaries of grammar. Take a common word and change its function—turn a noun into a verb, an adjective into a noun, or an adverb into something entirely new. Example: Instead of “That’s a fascinating idea,” try, “That idea fascinates my imaginings.” Write a sentence using your new word and reflect on how it alters meaning.
3. Spot everyday linguistic invention. Listen carefully to how people—especially children—play with language. Write down at least one example this week where someone uses a word unconventionally or unexpectedly. Reflect on what this reveals about language’s flexibility and creativity.
4. Reimagine a classic sentence. Take a famous quote, proverb, or well-known phrase and rewrite it in an unconventional way. Example: Instead of “Actions speak louder than words,” try, “Doing drowns deliberating.” Notice how the subtle shift in language reshapes the meaning.

Bottom-Line Takeaway

Language isn’t a rigid system of rules. It’s a living force of creation. Before we build stories or set down rules for their use, we grapple with existence through words. In so doing, we make the world meaningful—and tap into the power to reinvent it.