Sentence:  If adjectival meanings show relatively low <WSD>retentiveness</WSD> of stems , as I am confident will prove to be the case in most languages of the world , why should our basic lists include 15 per cent of these unstable forms , but only 8 per cent of animals and plants which replace much more slowly ? 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the power of retaining and recalling past experience