ABSTRACT Many people report experiencing mental imagery (visual, auditory, and/or kinetic) when they comprehend verbal metaphors. The question whether imagery is merely an incidental side-effect of processes of metaphor understanding or plays a key role in comprehension remains unresolved, with diametrically opposed views expressed among psychologists, philosophers, and literary theorists. I survey a wide array of evidence (behavioral and neurocognitive) concerning the activation and use of imagery in language processing generally and metaphor processing in particular. I conclude that mental imagery is not an essential component in the comprehension of language, whether literal or metaphorical, but it is often automatically activated in the minds of hearers or readers as a by-product of their linguistic and pragmatic processes. Writers may exploit this fact and enhance the impact of imagery by producing extended and/or creative metaphors, so that, although not essential, imagistic effects can be as significant as propositional cognitive effects.

中文翻译：

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比喻语言、心理意象和语用学

摘要 许多人报告说，当他们理解口头隐喻时，会体验到心理意象（视觉、听觉和/或运动）。意象只是隐喻理解过程的附带副作用还是在理解中起关键作用的问题仍未解决，心理学家、哲学家和文学理论家表达了截然相反的观点。我调查了广泛的证据（行为和神经认知），这些证据通常涉及在语言处理中，特别是隐喻处理中意象的激活和使用。我的结论是，心理意象不是理解语言的重要组成部分，无论是字面的还是隐喻的，但它通常会在听众或读者的脑海中自动激活，作为他们语言和语用过程的副产品。