2。 Literature Review

The translation of culture-loaded words has always been worthy to be discussed and it’s quite significant to find an appropriate translation method for the spreading of Chinese culture。 Great efforts have been made by most translators in the history of the translation of culture-loaded words。 The translation theorists employ different methods to translate culture-loaded words。 Nevertheless, the discussion about the best way to translate culture-loaded words is still a hot issue。

Eugene A。 Nida advances Functional Equivalence in his book “Language and Culture” and he holds that the purpose of translation is to make the target language readers understand the message of the source language easily。 Therefore he advocates domestication strategy in which readers are the focuses。 Nida’s domestication strategy has been highly respected in Chinese translation industry and it dominates the translation of Chinese culture-loaded words。 In 1995, the famous translation theorist Venuti’s masterpiece “The Translator’s Invisibility” was born and was introduced to our country at the turn of this century。 He points out that domestication obliterates the culture of the source language and brings forward foreignization。 He holds the opinion that translation should pursue heterogeneity and retaining the cultural characteristics of the source language embodies the equality of the national culture and promotes cross-cultural communication。 By now more and more translators tend to apply his translation strategy during the process of translating culture-loaded words。 And transliteration method is put forward by lots of people and I believe that it will be the mainstream in the translation of culture-loaded words in the future。

3。 Definition and Classification of Culture-loaded Words 

These culture-loaded words enrich Chinese language as well as Chinese culture。 Language which is the carrier and the mirror of culture contains rich cultural connotation。 While lexicon, as the most active and sensitive element in language, embodies the unique features of a certain nation and shoulders the responsibility of spreading and interchanging culture。

3。1 Definition of Culture-loaded Words

Culture-loaded words are defined as a kind of lexical gap。 In other words, the culture information which endowed in the origin term don’t have the corresponding words。 Among the practice of the Chinese-English translation, culture-loaded words are always the key and difficult part。 As we all know, China is a historical and multicultural country。 During his process of development, a large number of new words are created all the time, especially though the Internet。 Among all these terms, there is a special group of words, which are called culture-loaded words。 And this kind of words are used more and more widely in daily lives, many of them also can be found in the dictionary directly now。 However，it is rather difficult to define exactly what culture-loaded words are。 Several scholars, both in the west and China, have given their definitions of culture-loaded words in their voice or books。

In the language system, the words which can best embody the language carrying cultural information and reflecting the social life of human can be defined as cultural-loaded words。 Scholars have different interpretations for culture-loaded words。 “The source language word may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture。 The concept in question may be abstract or concrete; it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or a type of food。 Such concepts are often referred to as ‘culture-specific’ ” (Mona Baker, 2006: 21) Culture-loaded words include words with specific cultural images, phrases and idioms。 These words reflect Chinese cultural characteristics and a unique way of life。 (Liao Qiyi, 2002: 73) Jin Huikang (2003: 265) defines that culture-loaded words that every language has so-called culturally-loaded terms, which are the symbolic representation of the value system, history, religion, customs, thinking patterns and life styles of that peculiar culture。 There are no equivalent words or expressions since such things do not exist in another culture。 Culturally-loaded terms have the referential meanings as well as connotative meanings。 文献综述