摘要：

每个国家的文化都有其独特之处，而这种独特之处往往能在语言词汇方面显现，因而文化差异所导致的词汇空缺现象随处可见。本文首先概要的阐述词汇空缺这一现象。鉴于这一现象已被广泛研究，故作者在前人研究的基础上,进一步探讨了词汇空缺现象的分类及其形成原因，旨在能够更全面地阐释词汇空缺现象，从而消除词汇语义空缺给人们带来的语言交流障碍，搭建起中英语言沟通的桥梁。
  
关键词：文化；文化差异；词汇空缺；语义；跨文化交际

Abstract:

The culture of each country has its peculiarity, which is embodied in the aspect of vocabulary in languages. As a result, the phenomenon of Lexical Semantic Vacancy directed by cultural diversity can be seen everywhere. The paper first describes this phenomenon briefly. As this phenomenon has been studied broadly, the writer will make a further discussion on the classification and the forming reasons of Lexical Semantic Vacancy on the basis of former researches. It aims to clarify the phenomenon of Lexical Semantic Vacancy fully, to remove the communicating barriers caused by Lexical Semantic Vacancy and to set up the bridge of communication between countries around the world.

Key words: culture; cultural differences; lexical semantic vacancy; semantic; intercultural communication

1.    Introduction
     Culture is the totality of beliefs and practices of a society, and language is part of culture. Language is the bearer of culture; culture is loaded in language. They go hand in hand. Different nations have different culture, so it often leads misunderstandings in interactions between two peoples. Word is the basic unit of a language, and cultural differences can be displayed in lexical systems. In both Chinese and English, many words cannot find their counterparts in the other language due to the cultural differences, thus a lexical semantic vacancy exists in the two languages as a barrier. Lexical semantic vacancy are major difficulties in intercultural communication. If enough attention is not paid to solve the problem, we cannot succeed in communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds. So many scholars have already tried to study in the field.