In the modern German languages the genitive case of feminine nouns ends otherwise than in -s. Nevertheless, the sound of -s- occurs in composition equally, whether the noun it follows be masculine or feminine. This fact, as far as it goes, makes it convenient to consider the sound in question as a connective rather than a case. Probably, it is neither one nor the other exactly, but the effect of a false analogy. § 369. _Decomposites._--"Composition is the joining together of _two_ words."--See § 357. Words like _mid-ship-man_, _gentle-man-like_, &c., where the number of verbal elements seems to amount to _three_, are no exception to this rule; since _compound radicals_ like _midship_ and _gentleman_, are, for the purposes of composition, single words. Compounds wherein one element is compound are called _decomposites_. § 370. There are a number of words which are never found by themselves; or, if so found, have never the same sense that they have in _combination_. Mark the word _combination_. The terms in question are points of _combination_, not of composition: since they form not the parts of words, but the parts of phrases. Such are the expressions _time and tide_--_might and main_--_rede me my riddle_--_pay your shot_--_rhyme and reason_, &c. These words are evidently of the same class, though not of the same species with _bishopric_, _colewort_, _spillikin_, _gossip_, _mainswearer_, &c. These last-mentioned terms give us obsolete words preserved in composition. The former give us obsolete words preserved in combination. * * * * * CHAPTER XXXII. ON DERIVATION AND INFLECTION. § 371. _Derivation_, like _etymology_, is a word used in a wide and in a limited sense. In the wide sense of the term, every word, except it be in the simple form of a root, is a derived word. In this sense the cases, numbers, and genders of nouns, the persons, moods, and tenses of verbs, the ordinal numbers, the diminutives, and even the compound words, are alike matters of derivation. In the wide sense of the term the word _fathers_, from _father_, is equally in a state of derivation with the word _strength_ from _strong_. In the use of the word, even in its limited sense, there is considerable laxity and uncertainty. _Gender_, _number_, _case_.--These have been called the _accidents_ of the noun, and these it has been agreed to separate from derivation in its stricter sense, or from derivation properly so called, and to class together under the name of declension. Nouns are _declined_. _Person_, _number_, _tense_, _voice_.--These have been called the _accidents_ of a verb, and these it has been agreed to separate from derivation properly so called, and to class together under the name of conjugation. Verbs are _conjugated_. Conjugation and declension constitute inflection. Nouns and verbs, speaking generally, are inflected.