L’intuition linguistique et l’inférence du sens des mots inconnus – résultats d’une recherche

The article investigates linguistic intuition and one of its characteristics, namely the reliability of its decisions springing spontaneously into the consciousness of speakers who are, in the proposed study, learners of French as a foreign language (FFL) at intermediate level (B1). The reliability of intuition is examined concerning the immediate inference of the meaning of unknown lexical units from the context in which they are used. The first part of the article exposes analyses of linguistic intuition present in foreign language didactics. The second part describes empirical research of intuitive reactions and the compensatory role of intuition. The results obtained revealed that the reliability of the intuitive reactions of FFL users at the intermediate level depends mainly on the level of linguistic proficiency and the type of context from which the inference of meaning is made. At the intermediate level of language proficiency, a rapid decision gives poorer results than prolonged one. The research also shows that the context that facilitates intuitive reactions relating to inference of meaning is one where there is a profiling effect of one element becoming more salient than the others and the presence of redundancy.