On the surface, this mode of connection appears less rich than the first, since the number of combinative possibilities is much more restricted; but, in reality, the inﬂectional system never exists in its pure and most skeletal form; the internal modification of the root enables it to have other elements added to it, themselves susceptible of internal modification, so that 'each root is like a living and productive germ, every modification of circumstance or degree being produced by internal changes; freer scope is thus given to its development, and its rich productiveness is in truth almost illimitable'.