This is interesting, arising out of the sort of recursive study of brains using neural net methodologies. In short, we're finding the building blocks -- common across cultures and not word-based -- of complex thoughts. The end of this journey is definitely the ability of a computer to read minds. The applications of this ability are endless, from helping people who cannot speak, to better understanding... well everything.
Beyond Bananas: CMU Scientists Harness "Mind Reading" Technology to Decode Complex Thoughts
More interesting to me than the mind reading angle is a rare link to one of the more interesting ideas I ever encountered, now two decades ago. The site is still going, so I'll provide a link. It's the Atimari system, which uses the Aymara language to provide the structure of a language-between-languages used in translation.
"Guzman's aproach is extremely original," said Miguel Brazao, head of one of Wang's research and development divisions. "It is the only program that uses mathematics to go from one language to another. It is based on the algorithmic structure of Aymara. It is small and exceptionally fast and goes much further than the translation systems I'm familiar with."
Here's more: http://www.atamiri.cc/en/AtamiriSolution/Idea/index.html