the proposition that the cognitive limitations of infants and young children may serve to simplify the body of language they process, thus making it easier for them to learn the complicated syntactical system of any human language. The name is derived from the famous design dictum of German-born U.S. architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969). [proposed by 21st-century U.S. psychologist Elissa L. Newport]