Very true. We compress our understandings into analogies which
we compare against existing knowledge, then notice the
differences between two things that are decided as "similar but
not same" and file it away. Over and over again.
But the true knowledge of the concepts behind the words is a
tricky thing to discern. I lean towards "embodied cognition", so
I even see math as nothing but analogous to a toy in the mouth
as 1, left hand toy as 2, right hand toy as 3 and maybe toy held
by feet together as 4.
The rest of the numbers is linguistics and follows its own rules
of grammar but not so different than spoken word language.
