 As a consequence, the structure of language is a mere mirroring of that of reality. In Wyclif’s opinion, therefore, some entities must correspond in the world to the abstract terms of the category of quantity (like ‘magnitudo’) – entities really distinct from the things signified by the substantial terms. In any case, the most important evidence he offers for proving his thesis is a sort of abductive reasoning, whose implicit premise is the following inferential rule: if we can recognize a thing as the same thing before and after its undertaking a process of change, then what is changed is not the thing at issue, but a distinct entity really present in that thing as one of its real aspects. The second premise is the observation that men are of different size during their lives. And the conclusion is that those changes are due to an accidental form distinct from the substances in which it inheres (ibidem, p. 50).