But for a different counterpoint, lets say we gave a specific name to everything. For example, in my new, totally not-fake language, a hippo is a klantomolarnal.

Unless you already know a hippopotamus is a klantomolarnal, when someone says klantomolarnal, will you know what he means?

So, if our options are:

1) colloquial compound words that are informative but inexact and may require context (most languages) 2) unique words for everything with no intrinsic meaning (no language) 3) compound words that uniquely describe a thing (ithkuil, lojban, basically nothing useable)

It seems clear that (1) is our only real option. Toki Pona just has a harder time because of the smaller shared vocabulary which makes things more ambiguous.

In my limited experience, context clears things up tremendously.

(incoming rusty toki pona)

o sina lukin e ni! // Look at that!

o sina lukin e telo suli soweli! // Look at that big, water mammal [hippopotamus]!