Pragmatique et compréhension du langage : comment évaluer les inférences en jeu ?

The aim of this study was to suggest a computerised assessment system, stemming from experimental research, evaluating language inferences in the context of a situation of communication. The tool was composed of small movies presenting various situations of communication and placing the participant at the centre of the interaction: one character speaks directly to the camera (i.e. to the participant), producing an idiom. The idioms used were translated from others languages and have no French equivalents (e.g., to drop a pigeon). In order to understand the meaning the participant must use inferences from a semantic or a contextual analysis. The experimental design was tested with an adult population. Results demonstrated that both kind of inferences are necessary for language comprehension