| 释义 |
minimal, a.|ˈmɪnɪməl|
[f. L. minim-us smallest, least (see minim) + -al1.]
a. Extremely minute in size; of the nature of or constituting a minimum; of a minimum amount, quantity, or degree; that is the least possible.
1666G. Harvey Morb. Angl. x. 89 Choler being set on fire, and acting upon Melancholy, or rather calcining it into small acuated minimal bodies. 1878Smithsonian Rep. 367 The strength of which [elements of an electric battery] was reduced so as to produce a minimal contraction. 1891Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 Jan. 142/1 Without charge, save a minimal one for drugs. 1894Lister in Phil. Trans. CLXXXVI. 428 Multitudes of minute nuclei of minimal size. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 846 The minimal limit [of the field of vision] in health is 55 degrees.
b. spec. Linguistics. (a) Distinguished only by a single feature; usu. applied to a pair of similar forms; (b) other uses (see quots.).
(a)1939Amer. Speech XIV. 122 Words can be distinguished by the minimal opposition of vowel nasality and [n]. 1942C. F. Hockett in Language XVIII. 7 The term ‘contrastive pair’, meaning any pair between which there are differences in a context of similarity, any pair usable for the listing of features, is used here instead of the traditional term ‘minimal pair’. 1950D. Jones Phoneme vi. 15 When a distinction between two sequences occurring in a language is such that any lesser degree of distinction would be inadequate for clearly differentiating words in that language, the distinction is termed a ‘minimal one’... Minimal distinctions are very commonly effected by the addition or subtraction of a phoneme. 1955C. F. Hockett Man. Phonol. vi. 212 Before analysis is complete, one cannot be certain that a given pair is ‘minimal’ in a strict phonologic sense—that there is but a single difference, at the level of ultimate phonologic constituents. 1961H. A. Gleason Introd. Descr. Ling. (ed. 2) i. 16 In calling bill and pill a minimal pair we assume that they differ by only one phoneme. 1964R. A. Hall Introd. Ling. 81 Minimal pairs are not essential to show that two sounds do not belong to the same phoneme. 1971Archivum Linguisticum II. 48 In the days of ‘classical’ phonemics much play was made of the ‘minimal pair’ in order to establish throughout a language such lexical differences as those between pin, bin, tin, din, [etc.].
(b)1930H. E. Palmer Princ. Romanization 52 We may designate by the term monophone any phone of the first or second degrees of abstraction of which the concrete members are so similar in point of production and of acoustic effect even when observed by a competent observer, that it may be regarded as a minimal unit of pronunciation (i.e. practically insusceptible of sub-division). 1941G. L. Trager in L. Spier et al. Lang., Culture & Personality: Ess. in Memory of E. Sapir 133 Intensity of tone is manifested as relative height of pitch: maximal intensity is high tone, minimal intensity is low tone, medial intensity is middle tone. 1949J. R. Firth in Trans. Philol. Soc. 1948 142 The weak, neutral, or ‘minimal’ vowel. 1955Quirk & Wrenn Old Eng. Gram. 129 Taking the consonants of a word as its minimal root. 1962B. M. H. Strang Mod. Eng. Struct. vi. 84 They [sc. central nouns] can follow directly in minimal constructions (i.e. be head-word to) a closed system of words we shall call determiners. 1964R. A. Hall Introd. Ling. 15 Morphemes..are the minimal units which carry meaning. 1971D. Crystal Ling. 187 The grammar..could be analysed in terms of identifying a set of minimal units.
c. In Art, used of a form of painting and sculpture which is characterized by the use of simple or primary forms, structures, etc., often geometric and massive.
[1958Listener 23 Oct. 647/2 Creating huge, minimal forms with the palette knife in a few colours.] 1965R. Wollheim in Arts Mag. Jan. 26 In a historic passage Mallarmé describes the terror, the sense of sterility, that the poet experiences when he..confronts the sheet of paper..and no words come to him... Why could not Mallarmé, after an interval of time, have simply got up from his chair and produced the blank sheet of paper as the poem which he sat down to write?.. Such a gesture..would provide us with an extreme instance of what I call minimal art. 1967C. Greenberg in E. Lucie-Smith Movements in Art since 1945 (1969) i. 13 The working out of this problem, whose solution seems to have arrived in the form of what is called Primary Structures, ABC, or Minimal Art. 1969Britannica Bk. of Year (U.S.) 800/2 Minimal sculpture, sculpture in the idiom of minimal art. 1969Time 3 Jan. 42 Minimal forms still massively demand their unrewarding space, but they are countered by weirdly eccentric shapes that are frankly frivolous, at least unpredictable. 1969E. Lucie-Smith Movements in Art since 1945 viii. 240 His sculptures have been described as ‘minimal art’, or as examples of the ‘single-unit Gestalt’. 1971Rolling Stone 24 June 36/5 It remained only for minimal sculpture to come along, with its emphasis on the self-contained object (sometimes just a log, rock, or mound of dirt). 1973Times 30 June 12/4 There will be works of American, Continental and British artists, abstract expressionism, Pop, kinetic, minimal and conceptual art.
d. In Music, used of a form of composition which is characterized by the repetition of short phrases incorporating changes very gradually as the music proceeds.
1974M. Nyman Experimental Mus. vii. 119 (heading) Minimal music, determinacy and the new tonality. Ibid. 144 As in the American minimal music so all the workings of the process are easy to follow audibly. 1980New Grove Dict. Mus. XVIII. 481/2 Systematic, or ‘minimal’, music may consist of extended reiterations of a motif or group of motifs... Alternatively, the element of repetition may be governed by a system: the progressive lengthening of the repeated material.., changing discrepancies from simultaneity.., or large-scale rhythmic schemes based on integers. 1985Radio Times 20 July 85/1 It is indeed hard to see how such a gigantic work..can be considered ‘minimal’ in any way.
▸ minimal brain dysfunction n. Psychiatry = attention deficit disorder n. at attention n. Additions.
1966Jrnl. Lancet 86 121/1 The child with the medical diagnosis of *minimal brain dysfunction (or the educational diagnosis of ‘specific learning disabilities’) is the current focus of unprecedented multidisciplinary interest and concern. 1989J. A. B. Collier & J. M. Longmore Oxf. Handbk. Clin. Specialties (ed. 2) iii. 206 If there is also excessive inattention, poor concentration at school and impulsivity, the wider term attention deficit disorder or minimal brain dysfunction is used by some workers—provided the cause is not psychosis or an affective disorder. 1997Brit. Med. Jrnl. (Electronic ed.) 11 Oct. From the beginning of this century the concept of the condition has evolved from it being a biologically based disorder of behaviour control, from a condition with minimal brain dysfunction, to a disorder characterised by a deficit of attention. |