Over on English Language and Usage, there are many, many questions of the form "What is a single word for [phrase]".
The poster usually seems to be very keen to use a single word β which may be obscure, or have a subtly different meaning β than to use the idiomatic multiple word phrase that a native English speaker would always choose to use.
For example (and this is not intended as a slur on the questioner), one poster wants single word for "lack of clarity" β "unclarity", "obscurity", "ambiguity" are all unsatisfactory suggestions.
I am assuming that the questioners are not native English speakers, and wonder whether there is something about their native language that leads them to expect English to have a vocabulary full of words with very specific meanings.
My question is: is there a characteristic of non-English languages such that single words are considered particularly desirable? What families of language show this characteristic in particular?