It looks like the problem the author is struggling with is vocab-as-meaning vs vocab-as-etymology. She complains that english creates new words for everything; "bus", "envelope", etc, but we really tend to re-use words for different but allegorical meanings all the time. I'm sure all the readers here are familiar with at least one meaning of 'bus' that has nothing to with wheels. And the noun 'envelope' would be, I think, a pretty easy word to guess if you saw it in context and were already familiar with the verb 'envelop'.
This is one of the wonderful things about English (and other European languages that I have knowledge of).
My wife (also referenced in this thread here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1439092 ) struggled with English at first until an ESL teacher showed her how easy it is to manufacture noun, verb, adjective, or adverb forms from a single base. She had been working hard memorizing every word form that was taught her until somebody showed her that the way English actually works is generally pretty logical. She says her vocabulary tripled overnight.
