Pragmatics, Metaphor Studies and the Challenge of Mental Imagery

In this paper, starting from Carston (2018) and Wilson and Carston (2019), we will discuss the role of mental images in the comprehension of certain kinds of metaphor. In the first section we will analyze the treatment of metaphor in pragmatics, paying particular attention to Relevance Theory. In the second section we will compare the hypotheses of Carston (2018) and Green (2017) on the role of mental images in the comprehension of metaphors and we will propose a synthesis between the two positions. In the third and fourth sections we will discuss some problems that mental images pose to pragmatics, showing their necessity through recourse to anexperimental dimension. Finally, in the fifth section we will discuss the notion of mental image, proposing a characterization that can make this notion suitable for its insertion in the domain of analysis of pragmatics.