Where does the overspill of language come from?

How come human consciousness not only transcends the real, but inflates it? Reality doesn’t measure up to language, it isn’t enough for language. Think of what we make up in language – religion, for example – that does not exist in reality. Language generates an overabundance, a surplus to reality. Where does human consciousness come by its superabundance, its ability to represent more than there actually is?