Compensating for NLP's Lack of Understanding

The saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" does something of an injustice to the medium of language. It suggests that words are an inefficient form of communication when in fact the opposite is true. When humans use language to communicate, so much is left out because the speaker and listener share experience of the same world, which makes explicit statements about that shared world unnecessary in everyday speech. For example, if I say to you "the vase is on its side, rolling along the table," I don't need to also tell you that the vase is made of fragile stuff (it's a reasonable assumption that it is), or that the table doesn't have edges that will stop the vase's rolling, or that as a result the vase will likely roll off the table, or that gravity will make the vase to fall to the floor, which is hard and will therefore cause the fragile vase to shatter. It's enough for me to say "the vase is on its side, rolling along the table" for you to know the vase will likely smash to pieces unless someone intervenes.