Abstract

In this paper we will discuss how pragmatics (from Grice to Relevance theorists) has considered the relationship between mental imagery and metaphors and review evidence pointing towards an involvement of mental images in metaphor comprehension. We will argue that pragmatics has had the tendency to underestimate the importance of this issue, although many scholars have touched upon it (Carston, Metaphor and Symbol 33(3): 1–46, 2018). In fact, the involvement of mental images in metaphor comprehension bears fundamental implications with regards to the nature of linguistic utterances and their intrinsic multimodality. On the basis of this assumption we will propose a classification of kinds of metaphors based on the relationship they have with mental images.