ABSTRACT

Speech sound classified according to the way in which the airstream bypasses its obstruction (namely over the center (=median) of the oral cavity in contrast with lateral).

References

phonetics

Process in learning theory that is used in psycholinguistics as an explanatory model for problems of language acquisition, especially those concerning the formation and use of concepts. The term ‘mediation’ refers to the internal processing of stimuli and denotes non-observable cases of mediation between initial stimulus and final responses. Mediation operates via cerebral processes that bring about new modes of behavior as a reaction to a particular stimulus simultaneously as proprioceptive stimuli. Thus, Bousfield (1961) differentiates the conditioning process in acquiring meaning (which, according to the behaviorist explanation, rests on a coupling of objects with (linguistic) signs), by positing silent repetition of the heard words as a mediating behavioral unit which, for its part, possesses a stimulus character. This theory of mediation, which is based on verbal associations, is in direct opposition to C.E. Osgood’s much-discussed approach of emotionally controlled processes of mediation. Underlying this latter approach is the technique of semantic differentials.