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Lexical Gap and Methods to Cope with Lexical Gap in Translation 外国语学院 级指导教师 [Abstract] Different kinds of languages all have words with corresponding meaning, which is the basis for cross-cultural communications. However, translators sometimes find that there are no corresponding words or terms existing in the target language in the process of translation, which results from the cultural difference between the two languages. Lexical gap is a common phenomenon in translation and is also the most difficult part of it. Crystal David had given a definition to lexical gap, “Lexical gap is the term linguists use to describe a situation in which no single word exists in a language to denote a particular concept” (1995:116). This paper simply discusses the reasons of this phenomenon from the following aspects: first, geography; second, modes of production; third, religion; fourth, history and social culture; and the last, science and technology. Then the author proposes different methods through exemplification to cope with problems caused by lexical gap in translations, such as literal translation, free translation, annotation, transliteration, etc. And some preliminary evaluations for the translation strategies are given in this paper. Only when the translator is the master of the two cultures and conducts suitable translation strategies, can problems caused by lexical gap be well solved and the aim of cross-cultural communications between China and the west be achieved. [Key Words] lexical gap; translation; cultural word Introduction Language is the carrier of culture and culture distinctiveness clings very close to words. Living on the same earth, different kinds of languages all have words with corresponding meaning. For example, there are “water” and “fire” in English, and there are equivalent words “水” and “火” in Chinese. However, different environments, ways of thinking, histories and traditions all contribute to culture differences in language, which le