| Culture is a complex system of interacting elements. Culture is multi-dimensional and all-pervasive. Because it is so broad, there is not a single definition or central theory of what it is. It can be approached from different perspectives and defined in quite different ways.Culture can be defined as "the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, timing, roles, spatial relationships, concepts of the universe, and material objects acquired by a group of people in course of generations through individual and group striving."1 In the words of Hegel, "culture is the second nature that man has created." 2Both language and culture are intrinsically bound together. A culture cannot function without language, nor can a culture be passed on from one generation to the next without language.It can be said by comparison that cultural convergence/divergence is a gradual and dynamic process of change, which tends to be superficially similar/different. It is agreed that culture is characterized by diachronism and synchronism.Globalization will bring about cultural convergence and divergence, which is found in translation. The future orientation of world culture thus comprises two juxtaposed trends. In this cultural version of "think globally — act locally," the result will be a mixture of cultural convergence vs. divergence.Cultural convergence has a dual impact on translation. Universal knowledge of mankind in the " global village" is increasing step by step, cultural differences among peoples are relatively decreasing; on the other hand, in the process, different cultural conceptions inevitably conflict with each other, which brings about barriers and difficulties in translating.The difficulties brought about by cultural convergence are characterized by five aspects: 1) Lexical Gap; 2) Conflict of Word Meaning; 3) Difference of Associative Meaning; 4) Pragmatic Force, and 5) Difference of National and Cultural Psychology.The discussion of translatability has traditionally taken the form of a debate between proponents of untranslatabilty. The former thinks the language is translatable; translation, as a special type of social activity is both possible and feasible. While the latter believes that accurate translation is impossible. However it is constant practice of challenging and defending on both sides that makes the truth even clearer.It is generally held that untranslatability has its roots deep in the cultural differences. In other words, the fact that cultures differ from one region to another constitutes the premise of untranslatability. Many language phenomena particularly embedded in a specific culture defy easy and smooth transfer thus untranslatability occurs.Viewed from different angles, translatability allows of different versions of interpretation, but few of them fail to equate translatability with the feasibility of translation and the possibility of inter-linqual communication."Isomorphs provide one of the most helpful ways to recognize and to discuss matters of equivalence. Isomorphs are only an extension of the semiotic concept of iconicity, matters of likeness." 3 While discussing the relationship between translatability and the principle of isomorphs. Liu Miqing argues that the cognition and thought pattern of people who speak different languages are isomorphic as human beings living environment and cognitive subject are the same real world.Translatability is philosophically grounded on the principle of "Knowability." This principle argues that nothing on the earth is forever beyond human knowledge, in other words, there are only two types of things under the sun: the known and the to-be known.Nida in Toward Science of Translating traced some of the common humanity.a. All peoples possess similar mental processes.b. All peoples have basic somatic reactions in common.c. All peoples' living experience covers similar range of cultural aspects. d. All peoples are capable of adjusting themselves to un...
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