Lacunae in Linguistics: Theory, Typology, and Cross-Linguistic Significance

This article presents a comprehensive theoretical examination of lacunae as a fundamental concept in contrastive linguistics and translation studies. Lacunae — lexical, semantic, and cultural gaps between languages — represent one of the most revealing phenomena in cross-linguistic analysis. Drawing on the foundational works of Varkhudarov, Yuri Sorokin, Igor Markovina, and subsequent scholarship in comparative linguistics, this paper defines and classifies lacunae, discusses theoretical models for their analysis, explores their cognitive and cultural underpinnings, and evaluates methodological approaches for their identification and description. The study argues that lacunae are not mere translation inconveniences but windows into culturally encoded worldviews, and that their systematic study contributes profoundly to our understanding of linguistic relativity, intercultural communication, and the architecture of lexical systems.