Language: borrowed words, roots, verbs and spellings

Lawrence uses words from other languages: Latin ('Mens sana in corpore sano'), French ('C'est la vie', cul-de-sac) and Sanskrit ('Nirvana').

Latin roots grow whole families of English words: corpus (body) gives corpse and corporation; sanare (to heal) gives sanatorium and sanitary.

Verb types: an intransitive verb needs only a subject ('The bud opens'). A copula (be, become, seem) links the subject to a complement, a noun or adjective phrase ('He became a lamp-post').

'ch' has three sounds: /k/ (character), the sound in church, and 'sh' (champagne). Words from Greek often take /k/; words from French, the 'sh' sound.

'gh' is /g/ at the start of a word (ghost), and elsewhere /f/ (rough) or silent (taught).