mingle n, v
a classroom activity in which learners walk around the classroom and talk
to other learners to complete a task.
minimal-distance principlen
the principle that in English, a complementor a non-finite verbrefers to
the noun phrase which is closest to it (i.e. which is minimally distant from
it). For example in the following sentences:
John wants Mary to study.
Penny made the children happy.
the non-finite verb to study refers to Mary (not John) and the complement
happyto the children(not Penny).
Some sentences do not follow the principle, however. For example, in:
John promised Mary to wash the clothes.
the non-finite verb phrase to wash the clothesrefers to John(not Mary).
Such sentences are believed to cause comprehension problems for children
learning English.
minimalismn
also minimalist approach, minimalist programme
a theory of grammar introduced by Chomsky in 1995 as an advance
on government/binding theorywhile remaining within the general
paradigm of the principle and parameters model of universal grammar.
The cornerstone of the theory is that grammars should make use of the
minimal theoretical apparatus necessary to provide a characterization of
linguistic phenomena that meets the criterion of descriptive adequacy.
This goal is motivated in part by the desire to minimize the acquisition
burden faced by children and account for the fact that children will acquire
any language they are exposed to.
minimalist approachn
see minimalism
minimalist programmen
see minimalism
minimal pairn
two words in a language which differ from each other by only one distinctive
sound (one phoneme)and which also differ in meaning. For example, the
English words bearand pearare a minimal pair as they differ in meaning
and in their initial phonemes /b/ and /p/.
mingle