"I've always thought language was like mathematics." Well that's... an odd sort of statement to go with his equally reflective tone. But he continues: "Not the romanticism of speaking," obviously, Bruce, "but that it's remembering patterns and which variables to put in those patterns."

He sips his tea.

"People say that math is universal and constant and languages are too big and changing and easy to manipulate, but..." he shrugs a bit. "That's just how you use it."