Could an entire language exist without using any nouns?

Question

Accepted Answer

The Linguistic Possibility

Linguistically, a language without traditional nouns is theoretically possible, though it challenges our standard definition of grammar. While most languages rely on nouns to identify objects, some systems utilize predicative structures exclusively, where every concept is expressed as a process or an event rather than a static thing.

How It Functions

Instead of saying 'the tree', a speaker might use a verb phrase that essentially means 'treeing' or 'manifesting wood-like behavior.' This approach is known as:

Verb-centric morphology: All words function as actions.
 Holophrastic structures: Single words contain the semantic complexity of entire sentences.
 Contextual predication: Meaning is derived from the relational interaction between subjects and their environment.

Theoretical Implications

Proponents of the Nootkan language studies, such as Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, famously observed that some Indigenous American languages function almost entirely through verbs. In these systems, what English speakers categorize as 'objects' are viewed as fleeting manifestations of energy. Consequently, a language consisting entirely of verbs describes a universe in constant motion, fundamentally changing how speakers perceive the nature of reality itself.