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2.2 Culture-loaded Words
2.2.1 The Definition of Culture-loaded Words
As for the definition of culture-loaded words, it varies from east to west. The western scholar, Mona Baker, points out that “culture-loaded words are frozen patterns allowing little or no variation in form and in certain case are unknown or absent in another culture”(Baker, 1992, p63). In China, the scholar Jin Huikang, claims that “Every language has the so-called culture-loaded words, which are the symbolic representation of that particular culture. They are the terms that do not have a counterpart in another language since things do not exist in another culture. Culture-loaded words have both referential meaning as well as connotative meaning.”(Jin Huikang, 2003, p265). In this paper, based on Sun Zhili’s definition of culture-loaded words, the writer will study the words at 2014 APEC.
Sun Zhili gives his opinion on culture-loaded words: “there are many words in both English and Chinese which have rich cultural connotations, especially those idioms, adaptations, slangs and dialects. These words are called culture-specific terms or culture-loaded words.” (Sun Zhili, 2003, p127).
2.2.2 The Characteristics of Culture-loaded Words
Generally speaking, culture-loaded words have three main characteristics:
1) Culture-loaded words are peculiar or unique to one culture.
Hu Wenzhong pointed out that culture-loaded words are embodied with specific national cultural information and indicate extensive national culture(胡文中,1999, p64). Many culture-loaded words are peculiar and unique to one culture. For example, the words such as “科举”, “风水”, “旗袍” can only be found in Chinese culture.
2) Culture-loaded words are abundant in cultural connotations or associative reflection.
This can be understood as a same word may denote completely different even converse meaning in different cultures. Speaking of this characteristics, the example the most frequently cited is the word “dragon”. In China, the word is related to positive meaning, such as status, nobility, wealth, grandeur, luck, etc. However, in English, the word designates a frightening animal bearing evil, serpent, sin, etc.
3) Culture-loaded words are difficult or impossible to find equivalents in another culture.
Culture-loaded words are closely connected to the specific culture and represent the concepts formed in that peculiar culture, so it is difficult or even impossible to find equivalent words or expressions in another culture. Taking “风水”(feng shui) as an example. In Chinese, it means a kind of superstitious practice of determining the location of house, furniture or even a tomb, etc. which may bring good fortune to the family or people. In English, the word “geomantic layout”, which means architectural feature, bears some similarities with the word “feng shui”, however, it will never be completely equivalent to “feng shui” for it doesn’t carry as much cultural connotations as “feng shui”.