The proverb as a cultural cognitive macrostructure: Syntactic, conceptual, and anthropological analysis of “Camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente” (The shrimp that falls asleep is carried away by the current)

Abstract

This article analyzes the proverb Camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente (“The shrimp that falls asleep is carried away by the current”) from the perspectives of cognitive linguistics and cognitive anthropology. The objective is to examine the proverb to explain how the cognitive mechanisms that organize shared knowledge—mental spaces, image schemas, and conceptual metaphors—operate, demonstrating that the proverb functions as a cultural macrostructure of cognition. The study adopts a qualitative and descriptive-interpretative approach, integrating syntactic, cognitive, and cultural analysis. First, the syntactic structure of the proverb, the phenomena of ellipsis, and the function of pronominal verbs are examined as an entry point to its conceptual organization. Subsequently, drawing on Mental Spaces Theory (Dancygier & Sweetser, 2005), Image Schema Theory (Johnson, 1987; Peña Cervel, 2012; Dodge & Lakoff, 2005; Barrajón López, 2018), and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 2009), the study explains how these cognitive elements structure the proverb and how it projects a bodily experience of the natural world onto the social domain, where passivity entails loss or failure. Finally, the findings are discussed in relation to the conception of proverbs as forms of shared knowledge.