Hello, everyone, welcome back to our class. Today’s topic is “culturally loaded words”. First of all, let’s think about some questions: Do words or terms in one language have the same meaning in another? Can we count on our dictionaries to give us the proper English for a Chinese term, or the proper Chinese for an English word? Take some famous movies as examples. What is the Chinese name of the movie “Waterloo Bridge” and what about the movie “Inception”? In order to understand this, first of all, let’s see what is culturally loaded words.

Definition of Culturally loaded words

In the language system, culturally loaded words are the vocabulary which can embody the cultural information that a language carries and they also reflect the social life. Culturally-loaded words refer to those words or phrases which convey a certain kind of cultural connotations or associations which may or may not be found in other languages or cultures. They contribute to varieties of human world and the connotative meanings of culturally loaded words reflect key values of culture as a mirror reflects an image.

We all know that between a foreign language and one’s native language there exist numerous similarities and distinctive differences, which will give language their unique grammatical and lexical structures.  

Similarities:

On one hand, cultures in the world have similarities. Human beings are biologically the same. Heart may serve as a good example. In both languages, it has corresponding and similar expressions:

倾心  to find one’s heart to

灰心  to lose heart

伤心  break one’s heart

全心全意  heart and soul

从心底  from the bottom of one’s heart

More examples like these can be found in the expressions like flowers are sweet (花是香的)，the fox is cunning (狐狸是狡猾的)，sheep are meek and obedient (绵羊是温顺的), etc. Take some proverbs as examples, a lot of proverbs have the similarities of human experiences and observations of both English and Chinese cultures. For example, Many hands make light work (人多好办事), Kill two birds with one stone (一箭双雕), Beauty is only skin deep (美貌是肤浅的), etc.

Differences:

On the other hand, each culture is unique and different from other. Each is made up of its own social system, political beliefs, geographical conditions, value systems and living styles, etc. For example, in Chinese culture, “龙” is a totem with many royal association, such as “龙袍”，“龙颜”. However, the associations of “dragon” to the Westerners are horrible, disgusting monsters. Likewise, the Chinese expression “干部” is most commonly mistaken to mean “cadre” in English. But “cadre” is not the same as “干部”.  Actually “cadre” is not a common word in English, and many English-speaking people do not know what it means. No wonder various other terms have been suggested as substitutes: official, functionary, administrator, etc. But none of these is exactly the same as “干部”. This is the same case with proverbs. There are some fairly common English proverbs that do not have exact Chinese equivalents like the following: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. (越是不见越想念)，Let sleeping dogs lie. (莫惹是非)，An apple a day keeps the doctor away (一天一苹果，医生远离我).

The Chinese word “副” can be used together with a title on many occasions, signifying the one next to the principal or chief leader, such as “副主席”（vice-chairman）,“副教授”(associate professor), “副主任”（deputy director）(see the table below) .

The major semantic differences between English and Chinese terms might be grouped as follows:

1. 1)     A term in one language does not necessarily have a counterpart in the other language;

2. 2)     Words or terms in both languages appear to refer to the same object or concept only on the surface, but actually refer to quite different things;

3. 3)     Things or concepts are represented by one or perhaps two terms in one language, but by many more terms in the other language, i.e. finer distinctions exist in the other language;

4. 4)     Terms have more or less the same primary meaning, but have secondary or additional meanings that may differ considerably from each other.

Now, let’s see some kinds of culturally loaded words:

1. 1)     Society

A typical example is the word “family”. In western countries, “family” refers to the core family, which includes only husband, wife and their children. While in china, family usually refers to the extended one, including grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and nephews, etc. This kind of word stemmed out from the society are true reflections of the society.

1. 2)     Animal

People from different cultures have different attitudes towards the same animal. For instance, in western countries, people like to raise the dog as a pet. So, the word “dog” is a friendly and loyal image for them. In English, most of the idioms containing dog carry favorable sense except for few cases. For example, lucky dog, top dog, every dog has his day, etc. While, in China, it refers to people who don’t have dignity and are in low positions. For instance, 狼心狗肺（cruel and unscrupulous）,狗胆包天（monstrous audacity）, etc. In fact, the differences between them are the manifestation of national identity.

1. 3)     Color

In western countries, red color is used to refer to something bloody and cruel. While in China, red means communism and justice. In addition, Chinese government and people like to use red color to emphasize something charming and fantastic. Sometimes Chinese people also use red color to refer to jealousy such as the phrase “red eyes”, while western people tend to use “green eyes” to represent jealousy.

1. 4)     Food

Due to the different geographical and climate situations, people from different countries and regions have different preferences for food. For instance, western people tend to use chicken to refer to the people who are not brave enough, while Chinese people do not use chicken like this. Instead Chinese people prefer to describe someone as craven as a mouse. In a word, people from different cultures or with divergent beliefs have different tastes on food.

With the globalization and “One Belt, One Road” initiative, it is necessary for us to know about the culturally loaded words. Then we can have a comprehensive understanding of language. Have you found any interesting culturally loaded words? Would you like to list some and share with us online?