At first, there are two kinds of equivalence, one is formal equivalence, and the other is dynamic equivalence. According to Nida’s Principles of Correspondence, the formal equivalence is source-oriented; it mainly focuses on the form and content of source text, that is to say, each respect of the target text should be equivalent to that of source text. Under this equivalence, target language readers have to understand as much as he can of the cultural background of source text, which will bring about difficulties to receptors. In contrast, dynamic equivalence pays more attention on receptors. In other words, dynamic equivalence aims to reach the natural expression, and make foreign receptors understand the translating text with their own cultural background. However, the dynamic equivalence also has some limitations. It was established on the basis that each term in source language has its equivalent term in target language; while this condition is not available in real situation, such as the translation of culture-loaded words. Therefore, to solve the problem, Nida developed it into functional equivalence later.

Functional equivalence focuses both on form and content, which complements the disadvantages of former two equivalences. Functional equivalence is reader-oriented; and it is similar to dynamic equivalence. Functional equivalence aims to make receptors have the same reaction to translating text as the source language readers through the suitable adoption of translation strategies according to the context. Nida has also pided functional equivalence into minimal and maximal levels, and both the two levels all emphasize the response of receptors, which is the aim of functional equivalence. According to Nida, there are four aspects of equivalence, which are lexical, syntactic, textual, and stylistic equivalence, and meaning is the most important one, then the form.

2.2.3 Previous Studies on Functional Equivalence Theory at Home and Abroad

Since functional equivalence is such a significant translation theory, numerous studies were conducted based on it. For instance, On the Translation of Chines Puns from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence——Taking Pun Translation in Hong Lou Meng as an Example by Li Qianqian. Chen Hongwei has discussed the impact and application of functional equivalence on Chinese translation studies; while Lin Ke-nan paid his attention on the function and status of readers’ response in Nida’s theory. Apart from these studies, more studies on this theory will be further in the future.

2.3 Culture-loaded Words

2.3.1 The Definition of Culture-loaded Words

In Nida’s Language, Culture and Translating: Contexts in Translating, culture is defined as “the totality of beliefs and practices of a society.” Because different nations live in different geographical regions, thus they develop under various environments, which shape their social practices, thoughts, histories, etc. Therefore, all the nations have their unique culture backgrounds that influence their way of communication, thinking, and action. Under this circumstance, human beings speak in different languages. As an essential part of language, great deals of words carry specific meanings that differ from that of other nations. Therefore, to understand these words, one should try to understand the culture carried by them, and this kind of word is what scholars called culture-loaded word.

Xu Guozhang formally put forward the term of culturally loaded words in his “culturally-loaded words and English Language Teaching”. He has taken several examples to show that a word has different meanings in specific culture; if one tries to translate it, he should chose an equivalent word from the target language, not just translate it literally.

Therefore, the definition of culture-loaded words can be stated as the word that carries unique cultural meaning, which is formed by its own culture, such as idioms.

2.3.2 The Classification of Culture-loaded Words

In 1964, Nida classified English nouns into three categories from the perspective of translation equivalence. The first type is the words that have equivalent words in target language; the second type is the words that have some function but different in cultural implication; the last type is culture-bound words, which are typical for one nation; then he classified the second and third types as cultural words. In 1988, Newmark proposed the notion of cultural words, and classified them into cultural words of material, society, institution, custom, ecology, procedure, behavior, etc.