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can be associated with “丧家狗”, is doomed to be beaten fiercely by Chinese people, while “a lost dog” would be much more cherished by an American or a British. In American or British culture, “dog” is the substitute of loyalty, is a friend of human beings so that a large number of sayings or proverbs in English concerning with dog are absolutely opposite to those in Chinese with commendatory or at least neutral meanings. For example, “as sick as a dog” is used for a serious patient; “to die a dog’s death” refers to those who die from poverty or other disaster; mercy and sympathy are evident when a dog is used to describe human beings，a person in high rank – a top dog; a lucky person –a lucky dog. “I’m too old a dog to learn any new tricks” is said by senior citizens who assume that it’s too late for them to learn; and “凡人皆有出头之日” is “Every dog has its day”; “爱屋及乌” for lovers is “Love me, love my dog.” We can conclude from the above mentioned examples that “dog and 狗” mean the same animal in Chinese and English, the absolutely identical signified, but their cultural connotations are considerably different

4.5     Cultural differences in allusions

Allusions can not only make the language richer, but also make communication more vivid. Allusions derive from history, legends, literature, religion. Most English allusions involve events or characters from Shakespeare. Many lines from his play are used in daily English: forgive and forget, that’s all Greek to me, all’s well that ends well, all is not gold that glitters.

A large number of characters or names from English and American literature have come to stand for any person with similar traits:

a shylock — a cruel, greedy, money-grabbing person, one who will go to no ends to acquire wealth; from the Merchant of Venice, a play by Shakespeare.

A Sherlock – a detective or shrewd person who has the uncanny ability to track down and quarry or solve any mystery through careful observation, scientific analysis, and logical reasoning; from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s well-known detective stories.

An Uncle Tom – a meek person, especially a black, who submits to indignities and sufferings without any thought or act of rebelling; the main character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Another source of allusion can be tracked back ancient Greek and Roman civilization. It is natural that the classical Greek and Roman mythic stories are the common and important source of allusions in English.

A Pandora’s box -- a plentiful source of troubles or disaster. It derived from the Greek mythology. The story is that Pandora, the first woman who was punished and sent to the earth by the gods as a form of punishment, was forbidden to open the box sent by the gods. When she opened it at last out of curiosity, all the evils in the box flew out to trouble the earth with endless disaster, and only hope left inside when the box was closed. So the phrase often indicates something which may seem good, but which brings troubles at last.

Trojan horse -- the hidden danger. It originated from the story of huge wooden horse which were towed into Troy, without knowing that it was left by Ulysses. The armed本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。