Intercultural Communication and Translation of Culture-loaded Words of the West and EastAbstract:As a new marginal discipline, intercultural communication became an important separate discipline in the 1970s. It emerged in America and has been developing quickly and greatly in the western world. While in China, the discipline was first introduced in the 1980s. Nowadays, with the increasing exchange of the West and East, intercultural communication becomes increasingly frequent against the background of economic globalization. So it needs corresponding more translation activities. Against the background of economic globalization, we should be fully aware of intercultural communication, especially the conflicts and exchanges between Western and Eastern, the mixture of both and the work of translation. We should both learn the essence of Western culture and keep up the splendid cultural tradition of China.In the course of the intercultural translation, culture-loaded words contain cultural connotation and mirror cultural characteristics, so they are often considered difficult to translate. This thesis studies approaches of translating culture-loaded words in the broad context of intercultural communication by exploring the relation between culture and translation. This thesis argues that by adopting proper translating approaches, culture-loaded words should achieve both semantic and pragmaticequivalence, or at least pragmatic equivalence.Key words: intercultural communication; translation; culture-loaded words; semantic equivalence; pragmatic equivalenceIntroductionIntercultural communication involves two different cultures, and different culture created a different national language. Culture plays an important role in specific semantic structure and model of language. The vocabulary is the accumulation of cultural information, and the cultural concepts and values of different nation at all levels of culture are "reflected in their vocabulary system, and then form the words with cultural connotation." [1]With special cultural connotation, cultural words are often difficult in cross-cultural communication translation, and even become an obstacle to transmission of information.Influence of culture on translationFrom the perspective of intercultural communication, one of the purposes is to establish the cultural equivalence between the source language and target language. In terms of the translation of cultural terms, the cultural equivalence mainly reflects in the semantic equivalence and pragmatic equivalence. Semantic equivalence is the basis of pragmatic equivalence. Thus, in many cases, equivalent translation is also mainly refers to the semantic equivalence.The author believes that the basic principles of cultural lexicon translation should be done to maximize the semantic and pragmatic equivalence. We should at least ensure the pragmatic equivalence if semantic equivalence can not be achieved. For instance, in Tianjin city of China, there is a century-old snack "Goubuli" steamed buns, and now many tourist cities in the country establish its branches, and the buns are also sold abroad. Its English translation "Dog Won't Leave" is far from its original Chinese name meaning. And there is no semantic equivalent at all, because the Chinese "dog ignore" have no contact with “the dog” and “leave”. However, from the perspective of pragmatic translation, “Dog Won't Leave” is a wonderful translation. Dogs won’t leave buns stands for it will not leave its host either. Undoubtedly, such translation has a strong attraction force for diners in English and America who love dogs like loving friends. Basically, the equivalence in pragmatic effects is achieved.As the source language and target language are different in language and culture, it is almost impossible to achieve totally equivalence in semantic and pragmatic aspect for the source language and target language symbols. Therefore, when translating cultural words, we only try to pursuit of semantic equivalence as far as possible under the premise of ensuring pragmatic equivalence. There are five commonly used methods when translating cultural words:First, shift translation. It refers to unchanged moving all or part of the source language to the target language. For instances, CD, VCD, DVD, DNA, ICU, and many computer terms which are translated into Chinese by the shift frequently appear on Chinese newspapers and magazines. Some expressions with Chinese characteristics like qigong (qigong), taijiquan (shadow boxing), jiaozi (dumplings), qipao (cheongsam), has moved in English and American newspapers.Second, transliteration. Some of the source language culture-specific images are "blank" or "vacant” in the target language. I n this case, we can transplant these unique to the target language using transliteration method. Transliteration is homophonic in Chinese words or word combinations in English translation, and these words or word combinations are not meaningful ready-made words in Chinese. For instance: 秀(show), 酷(cool), 黑客(hacker), 艾滋病(AIDS), 色拉(salad), 可口可乐(Coca-cola) and so on.Third, literal translation. Literal translation refers to translation of the "corresponding" phrase and cultural information in the source language. This can preserve cultural identity of the source language as much as possible and broaden the cultural horizons of target language readers. However, it can not be applied mechanically, and it should not mislead the reader of the target language. For instance: olive branch (橄榄树), lonely as a cloud (像一朵孤云), 纸老虎(paper tiger),一国两制(one country with two systems), etc.Four, free translation. It focuses on the translation to convey the original meaning (interpretation), which lay down the language form and literal meaning of the source language. It expresses the cultural information of source language in the target language with cross-cultural "pragmatic equivalence. For instance: the Renaissance (文艺复兴); "辛亥革命"(the 1911 Revolution against Qing Dynasty), etc.Five, Replacement. It refers to the replacement of original words with some similar meaning but different concept meaning in the target language on the basis of keeping communication meaning of the original. That is to replace words with rich cultural connotation in the source language with corresponding word with same cultural connotation in the target language. Such as: to laugh off one's head (笑掉大牙); lead a dog's life (过着牛马不如的生活); 挥金如土(to spend money like water); 力大如牛(as strong as a horse).ConclusionEnglish and Chinese are two different languages, and both reflect the cultural differences which form the barrier of communication. How to overcome obstacles and achieve cultural equivalence is a difficult problem to solve. Practice shows that in most cases we can find reasonable translation methods which can be accepted by readers in the target language. By means of the necessary modifications, we can at leastachieve pragmatic equivalence. The important thing is that the translators should attach great importance to cultural factors in the source language, and consider issues from the purpose of intercultural communication.。